46 Montagne, whom no one can fufpect of prejudice or of bigotry, of attachment to any thing merely because it is established, fpeaking of Kings, fays, with his ufual good-humour and good fenfe, "We <c owe duty and obedience to Kings; for that "regards their office. Efteem and affection we owe to them when they are perfons of virtue. "Let us make the facrifice for the fake of poli"tical order, to bear with them with patience, even "when they are unworthy of their high office. "For the fame reafon let us conceal their "failings, and make the most we can even of "their indifferent actions, as long as we shall "have occafion for their fupport." Montagne, though always talking and thinking about his health, affected univerfally to ridicule the profeffors of medicine. He used to fay of them, "that they know more of Galen than of "their patients. Yet," added he, "let them "live by our follies; they are not the only "6 perfons who do fo." To fome hypochondriacal friend of his he faid, "Get your phyfician to "order you a medicine for your head; it will "do you more service there than when applied to "the ftomach." "Cowardice," fays Montagne very well, in one of his Effays, "is the mother of cruelty. "Courage," 66 Courage," adds he, " that I mean which op "poses itself only to resistance, nec nifi bellantis gaudet cervice juvenci, «ftops when it fees the enemy at its mercy. "But cowardice,"continues the acute Gascon," to fhew that it can alfo do its part, not having "been able to figure in the first rank, takes its 66 part in the second, which is blood and flaughter. "The murders attendant upon victories are "generally committed by the lowest class of the ¿C army, and by thofe that have the care of the "baggage. And what caufes fuch unheard-of "cruelties in all civil wars is, that the populace, "to fhew its bravery and its military skill, fteeps "itself in blood up to the elbows, and tears to pieces even the body that lies proftrate at its as feet." PIERRE CHARRON. CHARRON's celebrated Treatife on Wisdom is a kind of Commentary on the Effays of Montagne. The old Gascon was so pleased with his book and his converfation, that he permitted him to take his name and to bear his arms. The times in which he wrote could fo ill bear the truths advanced in the "Treatife upon Wildon," that he was denounced by the University of Paris as a man of irreligious principles. His friend the Prefident Jeannin, fo well known by his negotiations in Holland, faved his book from being condemned, by permitting the fale of it as a book of politics. The frontifpiece to the Elzevir. edition of Charron's Treatife reprefents the Goddess of Folly leading mankind by their paffions. Charron wrote another Treatife, not fo much read as his Treatife upon Wifdom. It is on the Three Great Truths. In the first part he attacks the Atheists; in the fecond he attacks the Pagan and the Mahometan religion; and in the third he defends the doctrines of the Romish Church. Charron begins one of his Chapters upon Wifdom thus: "Nihil eft a qualitate inæqualius +: "There is nothing fo unequal as equality." There is Cardinal Richelieu ufed to call Jeannin's Memoir of the Negotiations in Holland, the Breviary of State fmen. La Motte begins one of his Odes thus : Equality, fo oft addreft, Can't thou o'er wretched mortals reign ? Chimera boafted but in vain. VOL. I. K if is no fuch great hatred as that which takes place amongst perfons who are equal to one another. The envy and the jealoufy with which equals are poffeffed, are the causes of troubles, feditions, and of civil wars. In all Governments there must be inequality of rank, but it should be moderate. Harmony itfelf confifts not in a complete equality of tones, but in a difference of tones, that still agree one with another. ANTONIO GUEVARA ufed to fay," that Heaven would be filled with "those that had done good works, and Hell with "those that had intended to do them." If then to thee no altars rife, Mortals have to their forrow found, True offspring of a helpless race, GIORGIO GIORGIO SCALI. WHEN, according to Machiavel, this celebrated demagogue of the city of Florence came to fuffer death in the face of that very populace which had been used to worship him with a degree of idolatry, he burst into loud complaints against the cruelty of his destiny, and the wickednefs of thofe citizens who had forced him to court and carefs the Multitude, in whom he found neither honour nor gratitude; and feeing Benedetto Alberti, an old party friend. of his, at the head of the guards which surrounded the fcaffold, he turned towards him and exclaimed, Can you too, Benedetto, ftand tamely by and "fee me murdered in this vile manner? I affure you, if you were in my fituation, and myself in yours, I would not permit you to be fo treated. "But remember what I now tell you, this is the "laft day of my misfortunes, but it will be the first ❝ of yours." ST. FRANCOIS DE SALES is one of the latest of the modern Saints, but, as a Lady well obferved of him, a moft gentlemanlike Saint, as to the rigid virtues of religion he added K. 2 |
