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of Paris, and of his King, in their Service, against his nearest Relations, at the Head of an Army, through his Conduct, Victorious, and with Sword in Hand, at so extreme an Old-age, merits, methinks, to be recorded amongst the most remarkable Events of our Times: As also the constant Goodness, Sweetness of BeAnd of M. De haviour, and confcientious Facility of Mon

la Noue.

fieur De la Noue, in so great an Injustice of armed Parties, (the true School of Treason, Inhumanity, and Robbery) wherein he always kept up the Reputation of a great and experienced Captain.

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I have taken a Delight to publish, in several Places, the Hopes I have of Mary de Gournay le Fars, And of Mary my adopted Daughter, and certainly beloved de Gournay. by me with more than a paternal Love, and involved in my Solitude and Retirement, as one of the best Parts of my own Being. I have no Regard to any Thing in this World but her; and, if a Man may presage from her Youth, her Soul will, one Day, be capable of the nobleft Things; and, amongst others, of the Perfection of the facred Friendship, to which we do not read that any of her Sex could ever yet arrive; the Sincerity and Solidity of her Manners are already sufficient for it; her Affection towards me is more than fuperabundant, and fuch, in short, as that there is nothing more to be wished, if not that the Apprehension she has of my End, being now Five and fifty Years old, might not so cruelly

afflict

• As to the Meaning of these Words, Adopted Daughter, see the Article Gournay in Bayle's Dictionary; where you will find, that this young Lady's Opinion of the first Essays of Montaigne gave the Occasion for this Adoption, long before she ever saw Montaigne. But here I can't help transcribing Part of a Passage, which Mr. Bayle quoted from M. Pasquier, in the Note A, which contains fome remarkable Particulars of this Sort of Adoption. Montaigne, fays Pasquier, having, in 1588, made a long Stay at • Paris, Mademoiselle de Fars came thither, on Purpose to see his Perfon; ⚫ and she and her Mother carried him to their House at Gournay, where ⚫ he spent two Months in two or three Journeys, and met with as hearty a • Welcome as he could defire; and, finally, that this virtuous Lady, being informed of Montaigne's Death, crossed almost thro' the whole Kingdom ' of France, with Passports, as well from her own Motive, as by Invitation * from Montaigne's Widow and Daughter, to mix her Tears with theirs, whose Sorrows were boundless.'

afflict her. The Judgment she made of my first Essays, being a Woman so young, and in this Age, and alone in her own Country, and the famous Vehemency wherewith she loved, and defired me upon the fole Esteem she had of me, before she ever faw me, is an Accident very worthy of Confideration.

France.

Other Virtues have had little or no Credit in this Age, but Valour is become popular by our Civil Valour is beWars; and in this Respect we have Souls come popular in brave, even to Perfection, and in so great Number, that the Choice is impossible to be made. This is all of extraordinary, and not common, that has hitherto arrived at my Knowledge.

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WE

Of giving the LYE.

• This De

Work.

ELL, but fome one will say to me, fign of making a Man's Self the Why Mon• Subject of his Writing were excusable in taigne speaks rare and famous Men, who, by their Re- so often of him• putation, had given others a Curiofity to Self in this be fully informed of them. It is moft true, I confefs it, and know very well, that Artificers will scarce lift their Eyes from their Work to look at an ordinary Man, when they will forsake their Workhouses and Shops to stare at an eminent Perfon, when he comes to Town: It misbecomes any Person to give his own Character, except he has Qualities worthy of Imitation, and whose Life and Opinions may ferve for a Model. The great Actions of Cefar and Xenophon were a just and folid Basis on which to fix and found their Narratives: And it were also to be wished, that we had the Journals of Alexander the Great, and the Commentaries that Augustus, Cato, Sylla, Brutus, and others have left of their Actions. We love and contemplate the very Statues of fuch

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such Personages, both in Copper and Marble. This Remonstrance is very true, but it very little concerns me.

Non recita cuiquam, nifi amicis, idque rogatus"; Non ubivis, coramve quibuflibet : In medio qui Scripta foro recitant, funt multi, quique lavantes.

i. e.

I seldom do rehearse, and when I do
'Tis to my Friends, and with Reluctance too,
Not before every one, and every-where;
We have too many that Rehearsers are,

In Baths, the Forum, and the public Square.

}

I do not here form a Statue to erect in the Centre of a City, in the Church, or any public Quadrangle.

Non equidem hoc studeo, bullatis ut mihi nugis

Pagina turgescat:

Secreti loquimur b

i. e.

With pompous Trash to swell the frothy Line
Is not, indeed, my Friend! what I design :
Whatever be the Secrets I indite,

To you I trust, to you alone I write.

'Tis for some Corner of a Library, or to entertain a Neighbour, a Kinsman, or a Friend, that has a mind to renew his Acquaintance and Familiarity with me in this my Picture. Others have been encouraged to speak of themselves, because they found the Subject worthy and rich; I, on the contrary, am the bolder, by reason my Subject is so poor and sterile, that I cannot be suspected of Oftentation, I judge freely of the Actions of others; I give little of my own to judge of, because of their Nothingness: I am not so confcious of any Good in myself, as to tell it without Blushing. What Contentment would it be to me to hear any thus relate to me the Manners, Faces,

Hor. lib. i. Sat. 4. v. 73, &c.

* Instead of coactus, as Horace has it in the first Verse, Montaigne has fubstituted rogatus, which more exactly expresses his Thought,

Perf. Sat. v. v. 19.

Faces, Countenances, the ordinary Words and Fortunes of my Ancestors? How attentively should I listen to it! In Truth, it would be Ill-nature to despise even the Pictures of our Friends and Predecessors, the Fashion of their Cloaths, and of their Arms. I preserve my Father's Writings, his Seal, and one particular Sword of his, and have not thrown the long Staves he used to carry in his Hand, out of my Closet. Paterna vestis, et annulus, tanto charior est posteris, quanto erga parentes major affectus. A • Father's Robe and Ring are so much the dearer to his • Pofterity, in Proportion to the Affection they retain for ' him. If my Posterity, nevertheless, shall be of another Mind, I shall be even with them; for they cannot care less for me, than I shall then do for them. All the Traffic that I have, in this, with the Public, is, that I borrow their Writing Tackle, as it is more easy, and at Hand; and, in Recompence, shall, peradventure, keep a Dish of Butter from melting in the Market.

* Ne toga cordyllis, ne penula defit olivis, Et laxas fcombris fæpe dabo tunicas'.

i. e.

I'll furnish Plaice and Olives with a Coat,

And cover Mack'rel when the Sun shines hot.

Montaigne

talks so much of himself, that be might the better know himself, and give his own true Character,

And though No-body should read me, have I lost my Time in entertaining myself so many idle Hours, in Thoughts so pleasing and useful? In moulding this Figure upon myself, I have been so oft constrained to curry and turn myself, as it were, inside out, that the Copy is truly taken, and has, in some fort, formed itself, But, as I paint for others, I represent myself in more exquifite Colouring than in my own natural Complexion. I am as much formed by my Book, as my Book is by me: 'Tis a Book consubstantial with the Author; of a peculiar Tenor; a Member of my Life, and whose Business is not designed for others,

Aug. de Civitate Dei, lib. i. c. 13. * Mart, lib. xiii. Ep. 1. v. 1. Catullus, Ep. 92. v. 8,

of Paris, and of his King, in their Service, against his nearest Relations, at the Head of an Army, through his Conduct, Victorious, and with Sword in Hand, at so extreme an Old-age, merits, methinks, to be recorded amongst the most remarkable Events of our Times: As also the constant Goodness, Sweetness of BeAnd of M. De haviour, and confcientious Facility of Mon

la Noue.

fieur De la Noue, in so great an Injustice of armed Parties, (the true School of Treason, Inhumanity, and Robbery) wherein he always kept up the Reputation of a great and experienced Captain.

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I have taken a Delight to publish, in several Places, the Hopes I have of Mary de Gournay le Fars, And of Mary my adopted Daughter, and certainly beloved de Gournay. by me with more than a paternal Love, and involved in my Solitude and Retirement, as one of the best Parts of my own Being. I have no Regard to any Thing in this World but her; and, if a Man may presage from her Youth, her Soul will, one Day, be capable of the nobleft Things; and, amongst others, of the Perfection of the facred Friendship, to which we do not read that any of her Sex could ever yet arrive; the Sincerity and Solidity of her Manners are already sufficient for it; her Affection towards me is more than superabundant, and such, in short, as that there is nothing more to be wished, if not that the Apprehension she has of my End, being now Five and fifty Years old, might not so cruelly

afflict

• As to the Meaning of these Words, Adopted Daughter, see the Article Gournay in Bayle's Dictionary; where you will find, that this young Lady's Opinion of the first Essays of Montaigne gave the Occafion for this Adoption, long before she ever saw Montaigne. But here I can't help transcribing Part of a Passage, which Mr. Bayle quoted from M. Pasquier, in the Note A, which contains fome remarkable Particulars of this Sort of Adoption. Montaigne, says Pasquier, having, in 1588, made a long Stay at • Paris, Mademoiselle de Fars came thither, on Purpose to see his Perfon;

and she and her Mother carried him to their House at Gournay, where ⚫ he spent two Months in two or three Journeys, and met with as hearty a • Welcome as he could defire; and, finally, that this virtuous Lady, being < informed of Montaigne's Death, crossed almost thro' the whole Kingdom • of France, with Passports, as well from her own Motive, as by Invitation • from Montaigne's Widow and Daughter, to mix her Tears with theirs, whose Sorrows were boundless.'

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