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37 - 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 seven 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 Pamela
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  Speaker 1: Andagami of Prophet and Honesty, Part one. No man is
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  Speaker 1: free from speaking foolish things. But the worst on it
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  Speaker 1: is when a man studies to play the fool. Truly, he,
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  Speaker 1: with a great effort will say some mighty trifle, says Terence.
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  Speaker 1: This does not concern me. Mine slipped from me with
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  Speaker 1: as little care, as they are of little value, and
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  Speaker 1: tis the better for them. I would presently part with
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  Speaker 1: them for what they are worth, and neither buy nor
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  Speaker 1: sell them. But as they weigh, I speak on paper
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  Speaker 1: as I do to the first person I meet, And
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  Speaker 1: that this is true. Observe what follows, to whom ought
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  Speaker 1: not treachery to be hateful? When Tiberius refused it in
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  Speaker 1: a thing of so great importance to him, he had
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  Speaker 1: words sent him from Germany that if he thought fit,
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  Speaker 1: they would rid him of Arminius by poison. This was
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  Speaker 1: the most potent enemy the Romans had, who had defeated
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  Speaker 1: them so ignominiously under Varus, and who alone prevented their
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  Speaker 1: aggrandizement in those parts. He returned answer that the people
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  Speaker 1: of Rome were wont to revenge themselves of their enemies
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  Speaker 1: by open ways and with their swords in their hands,
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  Speaker 1: and not clandestinely and by fraud. Wherein he quitted the
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  Speaker 1: profitable for the honest. You will tell me that he
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  Speaker 1: was a braggadocio. I believe so too, and tis no
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  Speaker 1: great miracle in men of his profession. But the acknowledgment
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  Speaker 1: of virtue is not less valid in the mouth of
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  Speaker 1: him who hates it, or as much as truth forces
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  Speaker 1: it from him, And if he will not inwardly receive it,
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  Speaker 1: he at least puts it on for a decoration. Our
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  Speaker 1: outward and inward structure is full of imperfection. But there
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  Speaker 1: is nothing useless in nature, not even in utility itself.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing has insinuated itself into this universe that has not
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  Speaker 1: therein some fit and proper place. Our being is cemented
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  Speaker 1: with sickly qualities. Ambition, jealousy, envy, revenge, superstition, and despair
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  Speaker 1: have so natural a possession in us that its image
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  Speaker 1: is discerned in beasts, nay, in cruelty, so unnatural avice.
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  Speaker 1: For even in the midst of compassion we feel within.
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  Speaker 1: I know not what tart sweet titillation of ill natured
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  Speaker 1: pleasure in seeing others suffer, and the children feel it.
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  Speaker 1: It is sweet when the winds disturb the waters of
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  Speaker 1: the vast sea, to witness from land the peril of
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  Speaker 1: other persons, lucretius of the seeds of which qualities whosoever
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  Speaker 1: should divest men would destroy the fundamental conditions of human life. Likewise,
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  Speaker 1: in all governments there are necessary offices not only abject,
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  Speaker 1: but vicious. Also vices there help to make up the
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  Speaker 1: seam in our piecing. As poisons are useful for the
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  Speaker 1: conservation of health, if they become excusable because they are
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  Speaker 1: of use to us, and that the common necessity covers
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  Speaker 1: their true qualities. We are to resign this part to
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  Speaker 1: the strongest and boldest citizens, who sacrifice their honor and conscience,
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  Speaker 1: as others of old sacrifice their lives for the good
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  Speaker 1: of their country. We, who are weaker, take upon us
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  Speaker 1: parts both that are more easy and less hazardous. The
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  Speaker 1: public will requires that men should betray, and lie and massacre.
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  Speaker 1: Let us leave this commission to men who are more
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  Speaker 1: obedient and more supple in earnest. I have often been
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  Speaker 1: troubled to see judges, by fraud and false hopes of
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  Speaker 1: favor or pardon, allure a criminal to confess his fact,
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  Speaker 1: and therein to make use of cousinage and impudence. It
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  Speaker 1: would become justice. And Plato himself, who countenances this manner
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  Speaker 1: of proceeding to furnish me with other means more suitable
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  Speaker 1: to my own liking, this is a malicious kind of justice,
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  Speaker 1: and I look upon it as no less wounded by
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  Speaker 1: itself than by others. I said not long since to
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  Speaker 1: some company and discourse, that I should hardly be drawn
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  Speaker 1: to betray my prince for a particular man, who should
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  Speaker 1: be much ashamed to betray any particular man for my prince.
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  Speaker 1: And I do not only hate deceiving myself, but that
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  Speaker 1: anyone should deceive through me. I will neither afford matter,
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  Speaker 1: nor occasion to any such thing. In the little I
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  Speaker 1: have had to mediate between our princes footnote between the
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  Speaker 1: King of Navarre afterward, Henry the fourth and the Duc
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  Speaker 1: de Guiese. In the divisions and subdivisions by which we
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  Speaker 1: are at this time torn to pieces, I have been
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  Speaker 1: very careful that they should neither be deceived in me,
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  Speaker 1: nor deceive others by me. People of that kind of
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  Speaker 1: trading are very reserved, and pretend to be the most moderate, imaginable,
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  Speaker 1: and nearest to the opinions of those with whom they
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  Speaker 1: have to do. I expose myself in my stiff opinion,
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  Speaker 1: and after a method the most my own, a tender negotiator,
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  Speaker 1: a novice who had rather fail in the affair than
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  Speaker 1: be wanting to himself. And yet it has been hitherto
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  Speaker 1: with so good luck, for fortune has doubtless the best
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  Speaker 1: share in it. That few things have passed from hand
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  Speaker 1: to hand with less suspicion or more favor. In privacy,
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  Speaker 1: I have a free and open way that easily insinuates
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  Speaker 1: itself and obtains belief with those with whom I am
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  Speaker 1: to deal at the first meeting. Sincerity and pure truth
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  Speaker 1: in what age soever pass for current And besides, the
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  Speaker 1: liberty and freedom of a man who treats without any
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  Speaker 1: interest of his own is never hateful or suspected. And
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  Speaker 1: he may very well make use of the answer of
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  Speaker 1: Hyperodes to the Athenians who complained of his blunt way
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  Speaker 1: of speaking. My masters do not consider whether or no
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  Speaker 1: I am free, but whether I am so without a
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  Speaker 1: bribe or without any advantage to my own affairs. My
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  Speaker 1: liberty of speaking has also easily cleared me from all
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  Speaker 1: suspicion of dissembling, by its vehemency, leaving nothing unsaid, how
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  Speaker 1: harsh and bitter, soever so that I could have said
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  Speaker 1: no worse behind their backs, and in that it carried
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  Speaker 1: along with it a manifest show of simplicity and indifference.
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  Speaker 1: I pretend to no other fruit by acting than to act,
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  Speaker 1: and add to it no longer arguments or propositions. Every
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  Speaker 1: action plays its own game, win if it can. As
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  Speaker 1: to the rest, I am not swayed by any passion,
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  Speaker 1: either of love or hatred toward the Great, nor have
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  Speaker 1: my will captivated either by particular injury or obligation. I
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  Speaker 1: look upon our kings with an affection simply loyal and respectful,
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  Speaker 1: neither prompted nor restrained by any private interest, and I
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  Speaker 1: love myself for it. Nor does the general and just
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  Speaker 1: cause attract me otherwise than with moderation and without heat.
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  Speaker 1: I am not subject to those penetrating in close compacts
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  Speaker 1: and engagements. Anger and hatred are beyond the duty of justice,
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  Speaker 1: and are passions only useful to those who do not
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  Speaker 1: keep themselves strictly to their duty By simple reason utta
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  Speaker 1: to emotianimi quiuti ratioone known protest. All legitimate and equitable
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  Speaker 1: intentions are temperate and equable of themselves, if otherwise they
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  Speaker 1: degenerate into seditious and unlawful. This is it which makes
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  Speaker 1: me walk everywhere with my head erect, my face and
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  Speaker 1: my heart open to confess the truth. And I am
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  Speaker 1: not afraid to confess it. I should, easily, in case
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  Speaker 1: of need, hold up one candle to Saint Michael and
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  Speaker 1: another to his dragon. Like the old woman, I will
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  Speaker 1: follow the right side, even to the fire, but excluding
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  Speaker 1: the fire if I can, let Montigne be overwhelmed and
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  Speaker 1: the public ruin if need be. But if there be
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  Speaker 1: no need, I should think myself obliged to fortune to
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  Speaker 1: save me, and I will make use of all the
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  Speaker 1: length of line my duty allows for his preservation? Was
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  Speaker 1: it not Atticus, who, being of the just but losing sight,
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  Speaker 1: preserved himself by his moderation in that universal shipwreck of
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  Speaker 1: the world among so many mutations and diversities for private
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  Speaker 1: man as he was, It is more easy, and in
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  Speaker 1: such kind of work, I think a man may justly
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  Speaker 1: not be ambitious to offer and insinuate himself. For a man, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: to be wavering and irresolute, to keep his affection unmoved
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  Speaker 1: and without inclination in the troubles of his country and
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  Speaker 1: public divisions, I neither think it handsome nor honest. That
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  Speaker 1: is not a middle way, but no way to await
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  Speaker 1: events by which they refer their resolutions to fortune. Livy,
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  Speaker 1: this may be allowed in our neighboring affairs. And thus
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  Speaker 1: Jlo the Tyrant of Syracuse, suspended his inclination in the
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  Speaker 1: war between the Greeks and Barbarians, keeping a resident ambassador
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  Speaker 1: with presents at Delphoss, to watch and see which way
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  Speaker 1: fortune should incline, and then take fit occasion to fall
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  Speaker 1: in with the victors. It would be a kind of
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  Speaker 1: treason to proceed after this manner in our own domestic affairs,
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  Speaker 1: orin a man must, of necessity be of the one
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  Speaker 1: side or the other. Though for a man who has
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  Speaker 1: no office or express command to call him out to
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  Speaker 1: sit still, I hold it more excusable. And yet I
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  Speaker 1: do not excuse myself upon these terms than in foreign
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  Speaker 1: expeditions to which, however, according to our laws, no man
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  Speaker 1: is pressed against his will. And yet even those who
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  Speaker 1: wholly engage themselves in such a war may behave themselves
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  Speaker 1: with such temper and moderation that the storm may fly
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  Speaker 1: over their heads without doing them any harm. Had we
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  Speaker 1: not reason to hope such an issue in the person
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  Speaker 1: of the late Sieur de Morvilliers, Bishop of or Leon.
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  Speaker 1: And I know among those who behave themselves most bravely
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  Speaker 1: in the present war, some whose manners are so gentle,
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  Speaker 1: obliging and just, that they will certainly stand firm whatever
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  Speaker 1: event Heaven is preparing for us. I am of opinion
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  Speaker 1: that it properly belongs to kings only to quarrel with kings.
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  Speaker 1: And I laugh at those bully rooks who, out of
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  Speaker 1: wantonness of courage, present themselves to so disproportioned disputes. For
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  Speaker 1: a man has never the more particular quarrel with the
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  Speaker 1: Prince by marching openly and boldly against him for his
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  Speaker 1: own honor and according to his duty. If he does
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  Speaker 1: not love such a person, he does better he esteems him.
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  Speaker 1: And notably the cause of the laws and of the
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  Speaker 1: ancient government of a Kingdom has this always ennexed to it,
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  Speaker 1: that even those who for their own private interest invade
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  Speaker 1: them excuse if they do not honor the defenders. But
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  Speaker 1: we are not as we nowadays do, to call peevishness
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  Speaker 1: and inward discontent that spring from private interest and passion duty,
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  Speaker 1: nor a treacherous and malicious conduct courage. They call their
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  Speaker 1: propension to mischief and violence. Zeal tis not the cause,
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  Speaker 1: but their interest that inflames them. They kindle and begin
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  Speaker 1: a war, not because it is just, but because it
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  Speaker 1: is war. End of Section thirty seven