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

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  Speaker 1: Section forty three of selected essays of Michel de Montaigne
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  Speaker 1: by Michel Liquem de Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton. This
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  Speaker 1: librovox recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami.
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  Speaker 1: Of the inconvenience of greatness, since we cannot attain unto it,
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  Speaker 1: let us revenge ourselves by railing at it. And yet
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  Speaker 1: it is not absolutely railing against anything to proclaim its defects,
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  Speaker 1: because they are in all things to be found, how
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  Speaker 1: beautiful or how much to be coveted soever. Greatness has
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  Speaker 1: in general this manifest advantage that it can lower itself
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  Speaker 1: when it pleases, and has very near the choice of
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  Speaker 1: both the one and the other condition. For a man
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  Speaker 1: does not fall from all heights, there are several from
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  Speaker 1: which one may descend without falling down. It does indeed
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  Speaker 1: appear to me that we value it at too high
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  Speaker 1: a rate, and also overvalue the resolution of those whom
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  Speaker 1: we have either seen or heard have condemned it or
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  Speaker 1: displaced themselves of their own accord. Its essence is not
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  Speaker 1: so evidently commodious that a man may not, without a miracle,
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  Speaker 1: refuse it. I find it a very hard thing to
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  Speaker 1: undergo misfortunes. But to be content with a moderate measure
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  Speaker 1: of fortune, and to avoid greatness I think a very
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  Speaker 1: easy matter. Tismethinks a virtue to which I, who am
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  Speaker 1: no conjurer, could, without any great endeavor, arrive. What then
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  Speaker 1: is to be expected from them that would yet put
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  Speaker 1: into consideration the glory attending this refusal, wherein there may
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  Speaker 1: lurk worse ambition than even in the desire itself and
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  Speaker 1: fruition of greatness. Forasmuch as ambition never comports itself better
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  Speaker 1: according to itself than when it proceeds by obscure and
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  Speaker 1: unfrequented ways. I incite my courage to patience, but I
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  Speaker 1: reign it as much as I can toward desire. I
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  Speaker 1: have as much to wish for as another, and allow
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  Speaker 1: my wishes as much liberty and indiscretion. But yet it
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  Speaker 1: never befell me to wish for either empire or royalty,
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  Speaker 1: or the eminency of those high and commanding fortunes. I
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  Speaker 1: do not aim that way. I love myself too well.
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  Speaker 1: When I think to grow greater tis but very moderately,
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  Speaker 1: and by a compelled and timorous advancement, such as is
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  Speaker 1: proper for me in resolution, in prudence, in health, in beauty,
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  Speaker 1: and even in riches too. But this supreme reputation, this
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  Speaker 1: mighty authority, oppress my imagination, and quite contrary to that other,
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  Speaker 1: I should, peradventure, rather choose to be the second or
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  Speaker 1: third in Peigre than the first at Paris, at least
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  Speaker 1: without lying. Rather the third at Paris than the first,
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  Speaker 1: I would neither dispute a miserable unknown with a nobleman's porter,
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  Speaker 1: nor make crowds open in adoration as I pass. I
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  Speaker 1: am trained up to a moderate condition as well by
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  Speaker 1: my choice as fortune, and have made it appear in
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  Speaker 1: the whole conduct of my life and enterprises that I
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  Speaker 1: have rather avoided than otherwise, the climbing above the degree
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  Speaker 1: of fortune, wherein God has placed me by my birth.
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  Speaker 1: All natural constitution is equally just and easy. My soul
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  Speaker 1: is so sneaking that I measure not good fortune by height,
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  Speaker 1: but by facility. But if my heart be not great enough,
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  Speaker 1: tis open enough to make amends at any one's request,
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  Speaker 1: freely to lay open its weakness, should any one put
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  Speaker 1: me upon. Comparing the life of Lucius Thorius Balbus, a
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  Speaker 1: brave man, handsome, learned, healthful, understanding and abounding in all
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  Speaker 1: sorts of conveniences and pleasures, leading a quiet life and
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  Speaker 1: all his own his mind well prepared against death, superstition, pain,
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  Speaker 1: and other encumbrances of human necessity, dying it last in
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  Speaker 1: battle with his sword in his hand, for the defense
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  Speaker 1: of his country. On the one part, and on the
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  Speaker 1: other part, the life of Marcus Regulus, so great and
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  Speaker 1: high as is known to every one, and his end admirable,
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  Speaker 1: the one without name and without dignity, the other exemplary
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  Speaker 1: and glorious to wonder, I should doubtless say, as Cicero did,
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  Speaker 1: could I speak as well as he? But if I
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  Speaker 1: was to compare them with my own, I should then
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  Speaker 1: also say that the first is as much according to
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  Speaker 1: my capacity and from desire which I conform to my capacity,
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  Speaker 1: as the second is far beyond it that I could
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  Speaker 1: not approach the last, but with veneration the other I
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  Speaker 1: could readily attain by use. But let us return to
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  Speaker 1: our temporal greatness, from which we are degressed. I disrelish
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  Speaker 1: all dominion, whether active or passive. O Tanis, one of
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  Speaker 1: the seven who had right to pretend to the kingdom
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  Speaker 1: of Persia, did as I should willingly have done, which
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  Speaker 1: was that he gave up to his concurrence his right
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  Speaker 1: of being promoted to it, either by election or by lot,
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  Speaker 1: provided that he and his might live in the empire
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  Speaker 1: out of all authority and subjection those of the ancient
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  Speaker 1: laws excepted, and might enjoy all liberty that was not
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  Speaker 1: prejudicial to these, being as impatient of commanding as of
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  Speaker 1: being commanded. The most painful and difficult employment in the world,
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  Speaker 1: in my opinion, is worthily to discharge the office of
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  Speaker 1: a king. I excuse more of their mistakes than men
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  Speaker 1: commonly do in consideration of the intolerable weight of their function,
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  Speaker 1: which astounds me. Tis hard to keep measure in so
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  Speaker 1: immeasurable a power. Yet so it is that it is,
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  Speaker 1: even to those who are not of the best nature,
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  Speaker 1: a singular incitement to virtue, to be seated in a
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  Speaker 1: place where you cannot do the least good that shall
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  Speaker 1: not be put upon record, and where the least benefit
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  Speaker 1: redemned to so many men, and where your talent of administration,
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  Speaker 1: like that of preachers, principally addresses itself to the people
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  Speaker 1: no very exact judge, easy to deceive and easily content.
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  Speaker 1: There are few things wherein we can give a sincere
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  Speaker 1: judgment by reason that there are few wherein we have
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  Speaker 1: not in some sort a private interest. Superiority and inferiority,
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  Speaker 1: Dominion and subjection are bound to a natural envy and contest,
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  Speaker 1: and must of necessity perpetually intrench upon one another. I
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  Speaker 1: believe neither the one nor the other touching the rights
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  Speaker 1: of the other party. Let reason, therefore, which is inflexible
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  Speaker 1: and without passion, determine when we can avail ourselves of it.
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  Speaker 1: Tis not above a month ago that I read over
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  Speaker 1: two Scotch authors contending upon this subject, of whom he
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  Speaker 1: who stands for the people makes kings to be in
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  Speaker 1: a worse condition than a carter, and he who writes
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  Speaker 1: for monarchy places them some degrees above God Almighty in
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  Speaker 1: power and sovereignty. Now, the inconveniency of greatness that I
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  Speaker 1: have made choice of to consider in this place, upon
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  Speaker 1: some occasion that has lately put it into my head,
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  Speaker 1: is this. There is not, peradventure, anything more pleasant in
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  Speaker 1: the commerce of men than the trials that we make
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  Speaker 1: against one another out of emulation of honor and worth,
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  Speaker 1: whether in the exercises of the body or in those
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  Speaker 1: of the mind, wherein sovereign greatness can have no true part,
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  Speaker 1: and in earnest I have often thought that by force
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  Speaker 1: of respect itself, men use princes disdainfully and injuriously. In
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  Speaker 1: that particular, for the thing I was infinitely offended at
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  Speaker 1: in my child childhood, that they who exercised with me
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  Speaker 1: forbore to do their best because they found me unworthy
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  Speaker 1: of their utmost endeavor is what we see happen to
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  Speaker 1: them daily, every one finding himself unworthy to contend with them.
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  Speaker 1: If we discover that they have the least desire to
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  Speaker 1: get the better of us, there is no one who
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  Speaker 1: will not make it his business to give it them,
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  Speaker 1: and who will not rather betray his own glory than
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  Speaker 1: offend theirs, and will therein employ so much force only
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  Speaker 1: as is necessary to save their honor. What share have they, then,
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  Speaker 1: in the engagement where everyone is on their side, methinks
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  Speaker 1: I see those paladins of ancient times presenting themselves to
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  Speaker 1: jousts and battle with enchanted arms and bodies. Brisson running
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  Speaker 1: against Alexander, purposely missing his blow and made a fault
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  Speaker 1: in his career. Alexander chid him for it, but he
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  Speaker 1: ought to have had him whipped. Upon this consideration, Carneati
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  Speaker 1: said that the sons of princes learned nothing right but
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  Speaker 1: to ride, by reason that in all their other exercises
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  Speaker 1: every one bends and yields to them. But a horse
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  Speaker 1: that is neither a flatterer nor a courtier throws the
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  Speaker 1: son of a king with no more ceremony than he
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  Speaker 1: would throw that of a porter. Homer was fain to
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  Speaker 1: consent that Venus, so sweet and delicate a goddess as
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  Speaker 1: she is, should be wounded at the battle of Troy,
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  Speaker 1: thereby to ascribe courage and boldness to her, qualities that
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  Speaker 1: cannot possibly be in those who are exempt from danger.
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  Speaker 1: The gods are made to be angry, to fear, to
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  Speaker 1: run away, to be jealous, to grieve, to be transported
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  Speaker 1: with passions, to honor them with the virtues that a
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  Speaker 1: among us are built upon these imperfections. Who does not
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  Speaker 1: participate in the hazard and difficulty can claim no interest
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  Speaker 1: in the honor and pleasure that are the consequence of
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  Speaker 1: hazardous actions. Tis pity a man should be so potent
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  Speaker 1: that all things must give way to him. Fortune therein
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  Speaker 1: sets you too remote from society, and places you in
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  Speaker 1: too great a solitude, This easiness and mean faculty of
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  Speaker 1: making all things bow under you is an enemy to
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  Speaker 1: all sorts of pleasure. Tis to slide, not to go,
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  Speaker 1: tis to sleep, and not to live. Conceive man accompanied
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  Speaker 1: with omnipotence, you overwhelm him. He must beg disturbance and
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  Speaker 1: opposition as an alms. His being and his good are
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  Speaker 1: in indigence. Their good qualities are dead and lost, for
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  Speaker 1: they can only be pressed by comparison. And we put
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  Speaker 1: them out of this. They have little knowledge of true praise,
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  Speaker 1: having their ears deafened with so continual and uniform an approbation.
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  Speaker 1: Have they to do with the stupidest of all their subjects.
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  Speaker 1: They have no means to take any advantage of him.
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  Speaker 1: If he but say tis because he is my king,
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  Speaker 1: he thinks he has had enough to express that he
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  Speaker 1: therefore suffered himself to be overcome. This quality stifles and
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  Speaker 1: consumes the other true and essential qualities. They are sunk
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  Speaker 1: in the royalty, and leave them nothing to recommend themselves
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  Speaker 1: with but actions that directly concern and serve the function
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  Speaker 1: of their place. Tis so much to be a king
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  Speaker 1: that this alone remains to them. The outer glare that
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  Speaker 1: environs him, conceals and shrouds him. Our sight is there repelled,
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  Speaker 1: then dissipated, being filled and stopped by this prevailing light.
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  Speaker 1: The Senate awarded the prize of Eloquence to Tiberius. He
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  Speaker 1: refused it, esteeming that though it had been just, he
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  Speaker 1: could derive no advantage from a judgment so partial and
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  Speaker 1: so little free to judge. As we give them all
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  Speaker 1: advantages of honor, so do we soothe and authorize all
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  Speaker 1: their vices and defects, not only by approbation, but by
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  Speaker 1: imitation also. Every one of Alexander's followers carried his head
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  Speaker 1: on one side as he did, and the flatterers of
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  Speaker 1: Dionysius ran against one another in his presence, and stumbled
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  Speaker 1: at and overturned whatever was under foot, to show they
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  Speaker 1: were as purblind as he. Hernia itself has also served
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  Speaker 1: to recommend a man to favor. I have seen deafness affected.
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  Speaker 1: And because the Master hated his wife, Plutarch has seen
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  Speaker 1: his courtiers repudiate theirs whom they loved, And which is
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  Speaker 1: yet more Uncleanliness and all manner of dissolution have so
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  Speaker 1: been in fashion, as also disloyalty, blasphemy, cruelty, heresy, superstition, irreligion, effeminacy,
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  Speaker 1: and worse, if worse there be, And by an example
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  Speaker 1: yet more dangerous than that of Mithridates, flatterers who, as
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  Speaker 1: their master pretended to the honor of a good physician,
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  Speaker 1: came to him to have incisions and cotteries made in
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  Speaker 1: their limbs. For these others suffered the soul a more
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  Speaker 1: delicate and noble part to be cauterized. But to end
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  Speaker 1: where I began. The Emperor Hadrian, disputing with the philosopher
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  Speaker 1: Favorinus about the interpretation of some word. Favorinus soon yielded
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  Speaker 1: him the victory, for which his friends rebuked him. Him
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  Speaker 1: you talk, simply said he would you not have him
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  Speaker 1: wiser than I, who commands thirty legions. Augustus wrote verses
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  Speaker 1: against Acineus Polio, And I said, Polio, say nothing, for
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  Speaker 1: it is not prudence to write in contest with him
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  Speaker 1: who has power to prescribe. And he had reason for Dionysius,
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  Speaker 1: because he could not equal Philoxenus in poesy and Plato
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  Speaker 1: in discourse, condemned the one to the quarries, and sent
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  Speaker 1: the other to be sold for a slave in the
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  Speaker 1: island of a gina end of section forty three