of Cruelty, did not we therewith confound Things which Nature has exempted from all Feeling and Pain, as the Reputation and the Inventions of our Understanding, and if we did not inflict corporeal Punishment on the Difcipline and Monuments of the Muses. Now Labienus could not bear this Loss, nor furvive his Off-spring of the Brain that was so dear to him, but caused himself to be conveyed to and shut up alive in the Funeral Monument of his Ancestors, where he made Provision to kill and bury himself all at once: 'Tis not easy to produce an Instance of more vehement paternal Affection than this. Caffius Severus, a Man of great Eloquence, and his familiar Friend, seeing Labienus's Books committed to the Flames, cried out, that, by the same Sentence, they might as well condemn him to be burnt also, because he carried and retained all the Contents thereof in his Memory'. i The like Accident happened to Cremutius Cordus, who And the Books was accused of having, in his Books, comof Cremutius mended Brutus and Caffius. That base, serCordus. vile, and corrupt Senate, worthy of a worse Master than Tiberius, condemned his Writings to the Flames. He was glad to die with them, and killed himself by Fasting n. Poetry. Honest Lucan being condemned to die by that MifLucan's Fond- creant Nero, when he was in the Agonies of ness for bis Death, most of his Blood being already run out of the Veins of his Arms which he had caused his Surgeon to open, and a Chilness having seized the Extremities of his Body, which began to approach to the vital Parts, the last Thing he had in his Memory was some Verses out of his Book of the Battle of Pharfalia, which he repeated, and they were the last Words he spoke". What was this but a tender and paternal Leave which he took of his Off-spring, representing the Farewels and close Embraces which we give to our Children when we are dying, and an Effect of that natural Inclination which calls to our Remembrance, in this Extremity, those Things which we held most dear in our Life-time? Can Tacit. Annal. lib. xv. * M. Annæus Senec. Controv. lib. v. from the Beginning. 1 Idem, ibid. at the Conclufion. Tacit. Annal. lib, iv, Can we suppose, that Epicurus, who, when racked almost Whether Epi curus would not have preferred his Writings to the Children de to Death, as he Jays, with extreme Pains of the Cholic, comforted himself, however, that he had left fuch fine Doctrine to Mankind, would have entertained fo much Satisfaction in a Number of Children never so well born and bred, had he had any, as he did in the Pro- fcended from duction of his inestimable Writings? And his Loins. that if it had been put to his Choice to have left an illfavoured, untoward Child behind him, or a filly ridiculous Book, he would not have rather chose, as any other Man of his Abilities would have done, to have incurred the first Misfortune rather than the last. It would, perhaps, have been Impiety in St. Augustine, for Example, after it had been propofed to him, on the one Hand, to bury his Writings, from which our Religion has received so great Benefit, or to bury his Children, in Cafe he had any, if he had not rather chose to have buried his Children. 1 tion which Book. And, for my own Part, I know not whether I should not much rather have begot one perfectly of the Affecformed by my Converse with the Muses, than by that with my Wife. To this, such as it Montaigne is, what I give, I give absolutely and irre- had for his vocably, as Men do to the Fruit of their Bodies. That little Good which I have done for it, is no more at my own Disposal. It may know many Things that I no longer know, and hold of me that which I have not retained; and, if I stood in Need, I must borrow from thence, as much as a Stranger. If I am wiser than my Book, it is richer than me. There are few Men addicted to Poetry, who would not have been better pleased to be the Fathers of the Aneid, than of the finest Youth in Rome, and who would not have borne the Loss of the latter more calmly than that of the former: For, according to Ariftotle, the Poet especially, of all Workmen, is the fondest of his own Performances. 'Tis scarce to be believed, that Epaminondas, who boasted, that he had left to Posterity two Daughters, that would, one Day, do an Honour to their Father, (viz. the two noble Victories which he had gained over the Lacedemonians) would have given his free Consent to exchange them for the most shin The Fondness ries. of Epaminondas for his two ing Beauties of all Greece; nor that Alexanfamous Victo-der and Cæfar ever wished to be deprived of the Grandeur of their glorious Exploits in War, for the Advantage of having Children and Heirs, how perfect and accomplished foever. Nay, I make a great And of Phidias Question, whether Phidias, or any other eminent Statuary, would have been so folli for his finest Statues. citous for the Preservation and Continuance of his natural Children, as of an excellent Statue, which he had finished, according to Art, with long Labour and Study. And as to those vicious and furious Passions of Love, that have sometimes flamed in the Breasts of Fathers to their Daughters, or of Mothers to their Sons, the like is also found in this other fort of Parentage; witness the Story of Pygmalion, who having made the Statue of a Woman of fingular Beauty, fell so passionately in Love with this Workmanship of his, that the Gods, for the fake of indulging his Passion, were fain to put Life into it. Tentatum mollefcit ebur, pofitoque rigore Subfidit digitis. i. e. Hard though it was, beginning to relent,. T CHAP. IX. Of the Armour of the Parthians. IS a vicious and a very effeminate Custom of the Cafe of extreme Neceffity, and to lay them down again upon ever so little Appearance that the Danger is over. From hence arife many Disorders; for, every one crying out and running to his Arms just when he should The ill Custom of not being armed till the Enemy is at the Gates, • Ovid. Metam. lib. x. Fab. viii. v. 41, 42. take take the Field, some have their Armour still to buckle on when their Companions are already routed. Our Ancestors were wont to give their Head-piece, Lance, and Gantlet to be carried, and did not quit the rest of their Equipage as long as there was any Work to be done. Our Troops are, at this Time, all in Disorder, and make but a bad Appearance, by the Confufion of the Baggage and Servants, who can't be far from their Masters, because they carry their Arms. Titus Livy, speaking of our Countrymen, says, Intolerantissima laboris corpora vix arma humeris gerebant, i. e. Being most impatient of Labour, they had much ado to carry their Arms on their Shoulders. Several Nations do yet, as they did anciently, go to War without any manner of Covering, or such, at least, as was of little or no Defence. Tegmina queis capitum raptus de fubere cortex. i. e. For Helmets they their Temples only bind With a light Scull-cap made of Cork-tree Rind. Alexander, the most adventurous Commander that ever was, very seldom wore Armour: And such, among us, as flight it, fare never the worse for it. Where one Man is killed for Want of Armour, another falls by the Cumbersoneness, Embarrassment, and Weight of it, or by being crushed and battered to Pieces by some shocking Repercuffion, or rude Encounter with another: For, in Truth, to consider the Weight and Thickness of what we wear, it feems as if Self-defence was our only Aim, and that it is rather a Load upon us than a Protection: We have enough to do to support the Weight of it, being fo fettered and manacled as if we had nothing to contend with but our Armour, and as if we had not the same Obliga The Armour of the French toor cumbersome, by its Weight, to be proper for Defence. tion to defend That, as That has to shield us. Tacitus gives Tit. Liv. lib. x. c. 28. Though Livy says nothing of the Pains which the Gauls took to carry the Armour, yet this follows very naturally. Perhaps he has faid it elfewhere expressly, and that here Montaigne has joined the two Passages in one, as he very often does, Æneid. lib. vii. v. 742. gives a droll Description of the Soldiers among the ancient Gauls, who were thus armed for their own Defence only, without the Possibility of hurting, or being hurt, nor of rising again when they are once beat down. Lucullus perceiving certain Soldiers of the Medes, that formed the Front of Tigranes's Army, who were shut up in weighty and uneasy Armour, as if in Cages of Iron, imagined, from thence, The heavy and uneafy Armour of the Medes. that he should easily defeat them, and on them he began his Attack and Victory: And now that our Mufqueteers are come into Credit, I fancy something will be invented to immure us, for our Safety, from them, and to draw us to the War shut up in little Castles, like those which the Ancients put upon the Backs of Elephants '. This Humour is far different from that of young Scipio ", who severely chid his Soldiers for placing Chevaux de Frize under Water, in that Part of the Ditch where it was expected that the Garrison of a Town, which he had befieged, would fally out upon him, saying, That they who besieged a Town should think of attacking it, rather than of fecuring themselves; and he suspected, with just Reason, that this Stratagem would make his Soldiers not so vigilant against a Surprize. He also said to a young Fellow, who shewed him a fine Target that he was very proud of, 'Tis really a fine Target, my Boy, but a Roman Soldier ought • Tacit. Annal. lib. iii. to • Montaigne was wrong in his Conjecture, for now the Soldiers apparel themselves for an Attack, almost in the same manner as if they were going to a Ball. The Fashion, which regulates every Thing in France, has introduced this Custom there; the Fantasticalness of which did not escape the Criticisim of the judicious Cenfor of this Age, the celebrated La Bruyere: 'How came • Men, Says he, to think, heretofore, that the End of going to War was ei•ther to Attack or Defend? And, who advised them to the Ufe of Arms • both Offenfive and Defensive? What is it obliges them now to lay these * afide, and, whilft they put on Boots to go to a Ball, to support, without • Armour, and in a Doublet, the Pioneers who are exposed to all the • Fire from a Counterscarp? Were our Fathers, who did not think such • Conduct of Service to the Prince and the Country, Wife or Foolish? And what Heroes do we ourselves celebrate in our History? A Guesclin, a Clisson, a Foix, a Boucicaut, who all wore Armour, and buckled on the Cuirass?" • Valer. Max. lib. iii. in Romanis, sect. 2. If Montaigne took this from that Author, he mistook him grossly; for this Author does not say that they put Chevaux de Frize under the Water, &c, but only that fome advised Scipio to do it, 1 |