Printed for S. and E. BALLARD, J. CLARKE, D. BROWNE, C. HITCH M.DCC.LIX. ESSAYS OF MICHAEL Seigneur de MONTAIGNE. BOOK II. T CHAP. I. Of the Inconstancy of our Actions. HEY who apply themselves to the critical Inspection of human Actions, do not find them selves, in any Thing, so much perplexed as how to reconcile them, and set them off with equal Luftre; for they do commonly so strangely contradict one another, that it seems impoffible they should proceed from one and the fame Person. We find the younger Marius one While a Son of Mars, and another the Son of Venus. Pope Boniface VIII. is faid to have entered on the Papacy like a Fox, to have behaved in it like a Lion, and to have died like a Dog. And who could believe it to be the fame Nero, that perfect Image of Cruelty, who, when the Sentence passed upon a Criminal, was brought to him in Form to fign it, cried out, * Would to God I had never been taught to write ! So much it went to his Heart to condemn a Man to Death. All History is fo full of the like Instances, nay, every Man is able to furnish himself with so many out of his own Practice, that I sometimes wonder to see Men of Understanding give themselves the Trouble of reconciling fuch VOL. II. In B * Vellem nefcire literas. Senec. de Clementia, lib. ii. cap. 1. |