could never discover what Opinion he was of. Why did Epicurus affect to be abftruse, and what else procured Heraclitus the Surname of σκοτεινός, or obfcure ? Obscurity is a Coin which the Learned make use of, like Jugglers, to conceal the Vanity of their Art, and which the Stupidity of Mankind takes for current Pay. Clarus ob obfcuram linguam, magis inter inanes : i. e. Bombaft and Riddle best do Puppies please, The liberal Arts despised by some of the Sects of the Philosophers. Cicero reproves some of his Friends for having spent more Time in Aftrology, Law, Logic, and Geometry, than those Arts deserved, saying, That the Study of these diverted them from the more useful and honourable Duties of Life. The Cyrenaic Philosophers equally despised Natural Philofophy and Logic. Zeno, in the very Beginning of the Books of the Commonwealth, declared all the liberal Arts unprofitable. Chryfippus said, That what Plato and Aristotle had wrote concerning Logic, they only composed it for Diversion, and by way of Exercife; 6 ⚫ a little before explained to you from the Words of Clitomachus, in what • Sense Carneades declared these Matters. These very Things Cicero repeats afterwards, where he transcribes them from a Book which Clitoma⚫ chus had composed and addressed to the Poet Lucilius. After this, how ' could Cicero make Clitomachus say, that, by the Writings of Carneades in general, he could never discover what were his Sentiments ? The Truth • is, that Clitomachus had not read the Writings of Carneades; for, except • some Letters that he wrote to Anarathes, King of Cappadocia, which ran ⚫ in his Name, the rest of his Opinions, as Diogenes Laertius says exprefly, • were preserved in the Books of his Disciples. In Vita Carneadis, lib. iv. • fect. 65. The same Historian tells us, that Clitomachus, who composed • above 400 Volumes, applied himself above all Things, to illustrate the Sen• timents of Carneades, whom he succeeded. Diogenus Laertius, in the • Life of Clitomachus, lib. iv. fect. 67. Lucret. lib. i. v. 640, &c. Diog. Laert. in the Life of Zeno, lib. vii. sect. 32. i ercise; and he could not believe that they spoke of so vain a As for the rest, some have reckoned Plato a Dogma- What were continually starting Queries and stirring up Disputes, never determining, never fatisfying, and professes to have no other Science but that of Oppofition. Homer, their Author, has equally laid the Foundations of all the Sects of Philosophy, to shew how indifferent it was to which of them we inclined. To how many Socrates com- 'Tis faid, that ten several Sects sprung from Plato; and, in my Opinion, never did any Instruction totter and waver, if his does not. Socrates faid, 'That Midwives, while they make it their • Business to assist others in bringing forth, lay afide the Misery of their own Generati'on: That, by the Title of the Sage, which • the Gods had conferred upon him, he was • also disabled in his virile and mental Love, ' of Salluft. p. 94. Mattaire's Edit. London, 1713. ' of the Faculty of bringing forth, contenting himself to ' help and assist those that were pregnant, to open their • Nature, lubricate their Passages, facilitate the Birth of ' the Issue of their Brains; to pass Judgment on it; to • baptife, nourish, fortify it; to swathe and circumcife 'it; exercising and employing his Understanding in the • Perils and Fortunes of others." The Same Thing may be faid of many great Philosophers The Cafe is the fame with the Generality of the Authors of this third Class, as the Ancients have observed of the Writings of Anaxagoras, Democritus, Parmenides, Xenophon, and others. They have a manner of Writing doubtful, both in Substance and Design, rather inquir- and j'amous ing than teaching, though they intermix fome Writers. dogmatical Periods in their Stile. Is not this also visible in Seneca and Plutarch? How felf-contradictory do they appear to fuch as pry narrowly into them? And the Reconcilers of the Lawyers ought first to reconcile them every one to themselves. Plato seems to me to have affected this Form of philosophizing by Dialogues, on purpose to the End that he might with greater Decency from several Mouths deliver the Diversity and Variety of his own Fancies. To treat of Matters variously is altogether as well as to treat of them conformably, and indeed better; that is to say, more copioufly, and with greater Profit. Let us only look at Home, Sentences or Decrees are the utmost Period of all dogmatical and determinative Speaking: And yet those Arrets which our Parliaments make, those that are the most exemplary, and that are most proper to cultivate the Reverence due from the People to that Dignity chiefly, confidering the Ability of the Persons vested with it, derive their Beauty not so much from the Conclusions, which are what they passevery Day, and are common to every Judge, as from the Discussion and Debating of the differing and contrary Arguments which the Matter of Law admits of. And the largest Field for the Cenfures, which some Philosophers pass upon others, is owing to the Contradictions and Variety of Opinions, wherein every one of them finds himself intangled, eiVOL. II. ther R either on purpose to shew the Wavering of Man's Understanding upon every Subject, or else ignorantly compelled to it by the Volubility and Incomprehenfibility of all Matter: Which is the very Signification of that Maxim, so often repeated by Plutarch, Seneca, and many other Writers of their Class, viz. In a slippery Track let us fufpend our Belief: For, as Euripides says, The Works of God in fundry wife like that which Empedocles often makes use of in his Books, as if he was agitated by a Divine Fury, and compelled by the Force of Truth. No, no, we feel nothing, we fee nothing, all Things are concealed from us "; here is not one Thing of which we can positively determine what it is, according to the Divine Saying, Cogitationes mortalium timide, et incertæ adinventiones noftræ et providentia". i. e. • The Thoughts of mortal Men are miferable, and our Devices are but uncertain." The Search of Truth a very agreeable Occupation. It must not be thought strange if Men, though they despair of overtaking the Prey, do nevertheless take a Pleasure in the Pursuit: Study being of itself a pleasant Employment, so delightful, that, amongst the other Pleasures, the Stoics also forbid that which proceeds from the Exercise of the Understanding, are actually for curbing it, and think too much Knowledge Intemperance. Democritus, * To prove that this was exactly what Montaigne intended by those Words, Zue fignifie ce refrein, &c. which Mr. Cotton has moft absurdly turned into an Interrogation by this Jargon. What means this Chink in the Clofe? I need only point you to those that immediately preceded them in the Quarto Edition of 1588; where, after having spoke of those ancient Philosophers who had a Form of writing dubious, both in Substance and Design, in quiring rather than inftructing, though they intermix fome dogmatical Periods in their Stile, Montaigne says, in the same Breath, Where is this more visible than in our Plutarch? How differently does he reason upon the same Topic? How of ten does he give us two or three contrary Causes for the Same Effect, and how many various Arguments without preferring either to our Choice? 1 Plutarch's Treatise of the Oracles that ceased, c. 24. m Cic. Quæst. Acad. lib. iv. c. 5. • Wisdom ix. 14. B at his Table which In Democritus's Paffion for quiriesinto Natural Philofophy. Democritus, having eaten Figs tasted of Honey, fell immediately to confidering within himself from whence they derived that uncommon Sweetness, and, to be satisfied in it, was about to rifse from the Table, to fee the Place where the Figs were gathered: This Maid, being informed what was the Cause of this Bustle, said to him, with a Smile, that he need give himself no Trouble about it, for she had put them into a Vessel in which there had been Honey. He was vexed at the Discovery, because it had deprived him of the Opportunity of finding out the Cause himself, and robbed his Curiosity of Matter to work upon. Go thy way, faid he to her, Thou hast done me an Injury; but, however, I will feek out the Cause of it as if it was natural; and he would fain have found out some true Cause of an Effect that was false and imaginary. This Story of a famous and great Philofopher does very clearly represent to us the studious Passion that amuses us in the Pursuit of the Things which we despair of acquiring. Plutarch gives a like Example of one who would not be set right in a Matter of Doubt, because he would not lose the Pleasure of seeking it; and of another Person who would not fuffer his Physician to allay the Thirst of his Fever, because he would not lose the Pleasure of quenching it by drinking. Satius eft fupervacua discere quam nihil P. i. e. 'Tis better to learn more than is necessary than nothing at all. As, in all forts of Feeding, the_Pleasure of Eating is very often single and alone, and as many The ConfideraThings which we take, that are pleasant to tion of Nature the Palate, are neither nourishing nor whole- is Food for the some; in like manner, what our Understand- Mind of Man. ing extracts from Science, is nevertheless pleasant, though 'tis R 2 Plutarch's Table-talk, Qu. 10. lib. i. This Quotation, which I found as foon as I had dipped into the last Edition of Bayle's Critical Dictionary, at the Article Democritus, Note 1, is very just, as I was fully convinced by consulting Plutarch himself; but I have learnt from M. de la Monnoye, that, according to Plutarch, Democritus eat τὸν σίκυον, a Cucumber, and not τὸ σύκω, a Fig, as Montaigne has tranflated it, copying after Amyot and Xylander, P Senec. Epift. 88. |