20 4
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10 4
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66 8
Onund went to Rogaland in the South and visited many of his
relations and friends.  He lived there in concealment with a man
named Kolbeinn.  He there learned that King Harald had taken all
his property and given it into the charge of a man named Harekr,
one of his officials.  Onund went by night to Harekr's house and
caught him at home; he was led to execution.  Then Onund took
possession of all the loose property which he found and burnt the
building.
1000 10
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1000 5
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1000 5
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a
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a
b
50 134
   1575  ESSAYS  by Michel de Montaigne    translated by Charles Cotton    I.   OF CUSTOM, AND THAT WE SHOULD NOT EASILY CHANGE A LAW RECEIVED.
 HE seems to have had a right and true apprehension of the power of custom, who first invented the story of a countrywoman who, having accustomed herself to play with and carry, a young calf in her arms, and daily continuing to do so as it grew up, obtained this by custom, that, when grown to be a great ox, she was still able to bear it. For, in truth, custom is a violent and treacherous schoolmistress. She, by little and little, slily and unperceived, slips in the foot of her authority, but having by this gentle and humble beginning, with the benefit of time, fixed and established it, she then unmasks a furious and tyrannic countenance, against which we have no more the courage or the power so much as to lift up our eyes. We see her, at every turn, forcing and violating the rules of nature: "Usus efficacissimus rerum omnium magister." I refer to her Plato's cave in his Republic, and the physicians, who so often submit the reasons of their art to her 
 authority; as the story of that king, who by custom brought his stomach to that pass, as to live by poison, and the maid that Albertus reports to have lived upon spiders. In that new world of the Indies, there were found great nations, and in very differing climates, who were of the same diet, made provision of them, and fed them for their tables; as also, they did grasshoppers, mice, lizards, and bats; and in a time of scarcity of such delicacies, a toad was sold for six crowns, all which they cook, and dish up with several sauces. There were also others found, to whom our diet, and the flesh we eat, were venomous and mortal. "Consuetudinis magna vis est: pernoctant venatores in nive: in montibus uri se patiuutur: pugiles coestibus contusi, ne ingemiscunt quidem."
These strange examples will not appear so strange if we consider what we have ordinary experience of, how much custom stupefies our senses. We need not go to what is reported of the people about the cataracts of the Nile; and what philosophers believe of the music of the spheres, that the bodies of those circles being solid and smooth, and coming to touch and rub upon one another, cannot fail of creating a marvelous harmony, the changes and cadences of which cause the revolutions and dances of the stars; but that the hearing sense of all creatures here below, being universally, like that of the Egyptians, deafened, and stupefied with the continual noise, cannot, how great soever, perceive it. Smiths, millers, pewterers, forgemen and armorers could never be able to live in the perpetual noise of their own trades, did it strike their ears with the same violence that it does ours.
My perfumed doublet gratifies my own smelling at first; but after I have worn it three days together, 'tis only pleasing to the bystanders. This is yet more strange, that custom, notwithstanding long intermissions and intervals, should yet have the power to unite and establish the effect of its impressions upon our senses, as is manifest in such as live near unto steeples and the frequent noise of the bells. I myself lie at home in a tower, where every morning and evening a very great bell rings out the Ave Maria: the noise shakes my very tower, and at first seemed insupportable to me; but I am so used to it, that I hear it without any manner of offense, and often without awaking at it.
Plato reprehending a boy for playing at nuts, "Thou reprovest me," says the boy, "for a very little thing." "Custom," replied Plato, "is no little thing." I find that our greatest vices derive their first propensity from our most tender infancy, and that our principal education depends upon the nurse. Mothers are mightily pleased to see a child writhe off the neck of a chicken, or to please itself with hurting a dog or a cat; and such wise fathers there are in the world, who look upon it as a notable mark of a martial spirit, when they hear a son miscall, or see him domineer over a poor peasant, or a lackey, that dares not reply, nor turn again; and a great sign of wit, when they see him cheat and overreach his playfellow by some malicious treachery and deceit. Yet these are the true seeds and roots of cruelty, tyranny, and treason; they bud and put out there, and afterward shoot up vigorously, and grow to prodigious bulk, 
cultivated by custom. And it is a very dangerous mistake to excuse these vile inclinations upon the tenderness of their age, and the triviality of the subject; it is nature that speaks, whose declaration is then more sincere, and inward thoughts more undisguised, as it is more weak and young; secondly, the deformity of cozenage does not consist nor depend upon the difference between crowns and pins; but I rather hold it more just to conclude thus: why should he not cozen in crowns since he does it in pins, than as they do, who say they only play for pins, they would not do it if it were for money? Children should carefully be instructed to abhor vices for their own contexture; and the natural deformity of those vices ought so to be represented to them, that they may not only avoid them in their actions, but especially so to abominate them in their hearts, that the very thought, should be hateful to them, with what mask soever they may be disguised.
I know very well, for what concerns myself, that from having been brought up in my childhood to a plain and straightforward way of dealing, and from having had an aversion to all manner of juggling and foul play in my childish sports and recreations (and, indeed, it is to be noted, that the plays of children are not performed in play, but are to be judged in them as their most serious actions), there is no game so small wherein from my own bosom naturally, and without study or endeavor, I have not an extreme aversion for deceit. I shuffle and cut and make as much clatter with the cards, and keep as strict account for farthings, as it were for double pistoles; when winning or losing against my wife and daughter, 'tis indifferent to me, as when I play in good earnest with others, for round sums. At all times, and in all places, my own eyes are sufficient to look to my fingers; I am not so narrowly watched by any other, neither is there any I have more respect to.
I saw the other day, at my own house, a little fellow, a native of Nantes, born without arms, who has so well taught his feet to perform the services his hands should have done him, that truly these have half forgotten their natural office; and, indeed, the fellow calls them his hands; with them he cuts anything, charges and discharges a pistol, threads a needle, sews, writes, puts off his hat, combs his head, plays at cards and dice, and all this with as much dexterity as any other could do who had more, and more proper, limbs to assist him. The money I gave him- for he gains his living by showing these feats- he took in his foot, as we do in our hand. I have seen another who, being yet a boy, flourished a two-handed sword, and, if I may so say, handled a halberd with the mere motions of his neck and shoulders for want of hands; tossed them into air, and caught them again, darted a dagger, and cracked a whip as well as any coachman in France.
But the effects of custom are much more manifest in the strange impressions she imprints in our minds, where she meets with less resistance. What has she not the power to impose upon our judgements and beliefs? Is there any so fantastic opinion (omitting the gross impostures of religions, with which we see so many great nations, and so many understanding men, so strangely besotted; for this being beyond the reach of human reason, any error is more excusable in such as are not endued, through the divine bounty, with an extraordinary illumination from above), but, of other opinions, are there any so extravagant, that she has not planted and established for laws in those parts of the world upon which she has been pleased to exercise her power? And therefore that ancient exclamation was exceeding just: "Non pudet physicum, id est speculatorem venatoremque naturae, ab animis consuetudine imbutis quaerere testimonium veritatis?"
I do believe, that no so absurd or ridiculous fancy can enter into human imagination, that does not meet with some example of public practice, and that, consequently, our reason does not ground and back up. There are people, among whom it is the fashion to turn their backs upon him they salute, and never look upon the man they intend to honor. There is a place, where, whenever the king spits, the greatest ladies of his court put out their hands to receive it; and another nation, where the most eminent persons about him stoop to take up his ordure in a linen cloth. Let us here steal room to insert a story.  A French gentleman was always wont to blow his nose with his fingers (a thing very much against our fashion), and he justifying himself for so doing, and he was a man famous for pleasant repartees, he asked me, what privilege this filthy excrement had, that we must carry about us a fine handkerchief to receive it, and, which was more, afterward to lap it carefully up and carry it 
all day about in our pockets, which, he said, could not but be much more nauseous and offensive, than to see it thrown away, as we did all other evacuations. I found that what he said was not altogether without reason, and by being frequently in his company, that slovenly action of his was at last grown familiar to me; which nevertheless we make a face at, when we hear it reported of another country. Miracles appear to be so, according to our ignorance of nature, and not according to the essence of nature: the continually being accustomed to anything, blinds the eye of our judgment. Barbarians are no more a wonder to us, than we are to them; nor with any more reason, as every one would confess if after having traveled over those remote examples, men could settle themselves to reflect upon, and rightly to confer them with their own. Human reason is a tincture almost equally infused into all our opinions and manners, of what form soever they are; infinite in matter, infinite in 
diversity. But I return to my subject.  There are peoples, where, his wife and children excepted, no one speaks to the king but through a tube. In one and the same nation, the virgins discover those parts that modesty should persuade them to hide, and the married women carefully cover and conceal them. To which, this custom, in another place, has some relation, where chastity, but in marriage, is of no esteem, for unmarried women may prostitute themselves to as many as they please, and being got with child, may lawfully take physic, in the sight of every one, to destroy their fruit. And, in another place, if a tradesman marry, all of the same condition, who are invited to the wedding, lie with the bride before him; and the greater number of them there is, the greater is her honor, and the opinion of her ability and strength: if an officer marry, 'tis the same, the same with a laborer, or one of mean condition, but then, it belongs to the lord of the place to perform that office; 
and yet a severe loyalty during marriage is afterward strictly enjoined. There are places where brothels of young men are kept for the pleasure of women; where the wives go to war as well as the husbands, and not only share in the dangers of battle, but, moreover, in the honors of command. Others, where they wear rings not only through their noses, lips, cheeks, and on their toes, but also weighty gimmals of gold thrust through their paps and buttocks; where, in eating, they wipe their fingers upon their thighs, genitories, and the soles of their feet: where children are excluded, and brothers and nephews only inherit; and elsewhere, nephews only, saving in the succession of the prince: where, for the regulation of community in goods and estates, observed in the country, certain sovereign magistrates have committed to them the universal charge and overseeing of the agriculture, and distribution of the fruits, according to the necessity of every one: where they lament the death of
children, and feast at the decease of old men; where they lie ten or twelve in a bed, men and their wives together: where women, whose husbands come to violent ends, may marry again, and others not: where the condition women is looked upon with such contempt, that they kill all the native females, and buy wives of their neighbors to supply their use; where husbands may repudiate their wives without showing any cause, but wives cannot part from their husbands, for what cause soever; where husbands may sell their wives in case of sterility; where they boil the bodies of their dead, and afterward pound them to a pulp, which they mix with their wine, and drink it; where the most coveted sepulture is to be eaten with dogs, and elsewhere by birds; where they believe the souls of the blessed live in all manner of liberty, in delightful fields, furnished with all sorts of delicacies, and that it is these souls, repeating the words we utter, which we call echo; where they fight in the 
water, and shoot their arrows with the most mortal aim, swimming; where, for a sign of subjection, they lift up their shoulders, and hang down their heads; where they put off their shoes when they enter the king's palace; where the eunuchs, who take charge of the sacred women, have, moreover, their lips and noses cut off, that they may not be loved; where the priests put out their own eyes, to be better acquainted with their demons, and the better to receive their oracles; where every one makes to himself a deity of what he likes best; the hunter of a lion or a fox, the fisher of some fish; idols of every human action or passion; in which place, the sun, the moon, and the earth are the principal deities, and the form of taking an oath is, to touch the earth, looking up to heaven; where both flesh and fish is eaten raw; where the greatest oath they take is, to swear by the name of some dead person of reputation, laying their hand upon his tomb; where the new year's gift the king 
sends every year to the princes, his vassals, is fire, which being brought, all the old fire is put out, and the neighboring people are bound to fetch the new, every one for themselves, upon pain of high treason; where, when the king, to betake himself wholly to devotion, retires from his administration (which often falls out), his next successor is obliged to do the same, and the right of the kingdom devolves to the third in succession; where the vary the form of government, according to the seeming necessity of affairs; depose the king when they think good, substituting certain elders to govern in his stead, and sometimes transferring it into the hands of the commonalty; where men and women are both circumcised and also baptized; where the soldier, who in one or several engagements, has been so fortunate as to present seven of the enemies' heads to the king, is made noble: where they live in that rare and unsociable opinion of the mortality of the soul; where the women are 
delivered without pain or fear: where the women wear copper leggings upon both legs, and if a louse bite them, are bound in magnanimity to bite them again, and dare not marry, till first they have made their king a tender of their virginity, if he please to accept it: where the ordinary way of salutation is by putting a finger down to the earth, and then pointing it up toward heaven: where men carry burdens upon their heads, and women on their shoulders; where the women make water standing, and the men squatting: where they send their blood in token of friendship, and offer incense to the men they would honor, like gods: where, not only to the fourth, but in any other remote degree, kindred are not permitted to marry: where the children are four years at nurse, and often twelve; in which place, also, it is accounted mortal to give the child suck the first day after it is born: where the correction of the male children is peculiarly designed to the fathers, and to the mothers of 
the girls; the punishment being to hang them by the heels in the smoke: where they circumcise the women: where they eat all sorts of herbs, without other scruple than of the badness of the smell: where all things are open- the finest houses, furnished in the richest manner, without doors, windows, trunks, or chests to lock, a thief being there punished double what they are in other places: where they crack lice with their teeth like monkeys, and abhor to see them killed with one's nails: where in all their lives they neither cut their hair nor pare their nails; and, in another place, pare those of the right hand only, letting the left grow for ornament and bravery: where they suffer the hair on the right side to grow as long as it will, and shave the other; and in the neighboring provinces, some let their hair grow long before, and some behind, shaving close the rest: where parents let out their children, and husbands their wives, to their guests to hire: where a man may get 
his own mother with child and fathers make use of their own daughters or sons, without scandal: where at their solemn feasts they interchangeably lend their children to one another, without any consideration of nearness of blood. In one place, men feed upon human flesh; in another, 'tis reputed a pious office for a man to kill his father at a certain age; elsewhere, the fathers dispose of their children, while yet in their mothers' wombs, some to be preserved and carefully brought up, and others to be abandoned or made away. Elsewhere the old husbands lend their wives to young men; and in another place they are in common, without offense; in one place particularly, the women take it for a mark of honor to have as many gay fringed tassels at the bottom of their garment, as they have lain with several men. Moreover, has not custom made a republic of women separately by themselves? has it not put arms into their hands, and made them raise armies and fight battles? And does she 
not, by her own precept, instruct the most ignorant vulgar, and make them perfect in things which all the philosophy in the world could never beat into the heads of the wisest men? For we know entire nations, where death was not only despised, but entertained with the greatest triumph; where children of seven years old suffered themselves to be whipped to death, without changing countenance; where riches were in such contempt, that the meanest citizen would not have deigned to stoop to take up a purse of crowns. And we know regions, very fruitful in all manner of provisions, where, notwithstanding, the most ordinary diet, and that they are most pleased with, is only bread, cresses, and water. Did not custom, moreover, work that miracle in Chios that, in seven hundred years, it was never known that ever maid or wife committed any act to the prejudice of her honor.  To conclude; there is nothing, in my opinion, that she does not, or may not do; and, therefore, with very good reason 
it is, that Pindar calls her the queen, and empress of the world. He that was seen to beat his father, and reproved for so doing, made answer, that it was the custom of their family: that, in like manner his father had beaten his grandfather, his grandfather his great-grandfather, "And this," says he, pointing to his son, "when he comes to my age, shall beat me." And the father, whom the son dragged and hauled along the streets, commanded him to stop at a certain door, for he himself, he said, had dragged his father no farther, that being the utmost limit of the hereditary outrage the sons used to practice upon the fathers in their family. It is as much by custom as infirmity, says Aristotle, that women tear their hair, bite their nails, and eats coals and earth, and, more by custom than nature, that men abuse themselves with one another.  The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom; every one, having an inward veneration for the 
opinions and manners approved and received among his own people, cannot, without very great reluctance, depart from them, nor apply himself to them without applause. In times past, when those of Crete would curse any one, they prayed the gods to engage him in some ill custom. But the principal effect of its power is, so to seize and ensnare us, that it is hardly in us to disengage ourselves from its gripe, or so to come to ourselves, as to consider of and to weigh the things it enjoins. To say the truth, by reason that we suck it in with our milk, and that the face of the world presents itself in this posture to our first sight, it seems as if we were born upon condition to follow on this track; and the common fancies that we find in repute everywhere about us, and infused into our minds with the seed of our fathers, appear to be the most universal and genuine: from whence it comes to pass, that whatever is off the hinges of custom, is believed to be also off the hinges of 
reason; how unreasonably, for the most part, God knows.  If, as we who study ourselves, have learned to do, every one who hears a good sentence, would immediately consider how it does any way touch his own private concern, every one would find that it was not so much a good saying, as a severe lash to the ordinary stupidity of his own judgment; but men receive the precepts and admonitions of truth, as directed to the common sort, and never to themselves; and instead of applying them to their own manners, do only very ignorantly and unprofitably commit them to memory. But let us return to the empire of custom.  Such people as have been bred up to liberty, and subject to no other dominion but the authority of their own will, look upon all other form of government as monstrous and contrary to nature. Those who are inured to monarchy do the same; and what opportunity soever fortune presents them with to change, even then, when with the greatest difficulties they have disengaged 
themselves from one master, that was troublesome and grievous to them, they presently run, with the same difficulties, to create another; being unable to take into hatred subjection itself.  'Tis by the mediation of custom, that every one is content with the place where he is planted by nature; and the Highlanders of Scotland no more pant after Touraine, than the Scythians after Thessaly. Darius asking certain Greeks what they would take to assume the custom of the Indians, of eating the dead bodies of their fathers (for that was their use, believing they could not give them a better, nor more noble sepulture, than to bury them in their own bodies), they made answer, that nothing in the world should hire them to do it; but having also tried to persuade the Indians to leave their custom, and, after the Greek manner, to burn the bodies of their fathers, they conceived a still greater horror at the notion. Every one does the same, for use veils from us the true aspect of things.
   "Nil adeo magnum, nec tam mirabile quidquam  Principio, quod non minuant mirarier omnes   Paullatim."  Taking upon me once to justify something in use among us, and that was received with absolute authority for a great many leagues round about us, and not content, as men commonly do, to establish it only by force of law and example, but inquiring still farther into its origin, I found the foundation so weak, that I who made it my business to confirm others, was very near being dissatisfied myself. 'Tis by this receipt that Plato undertakes to cure the unnatural and preposterous loves of his time, as one which he esteems of sovereign virtue; namely, that the public opinion condemns them; that the poets, and all other sorts of writers, relate horrible stories of them; a recipe, by virtue of which the most beautiful daughters no more allure their father's lust; nor brothers, of the finest shape and fashion, their sisters' desire; the very fables of Thyestes, Oedipus, and 
Macareus, having with the harmony of their song, infused this wholesome opinion and belief into the tender brains of children. Chastity is, in truth, a great and shining virtue, and of which the utility is sufficiently known; but to treat of it, and to set it off in its true value, according to nature, is as hard as 'tis easy to do so according to custom, laws, and precepts. The fundamental and universal reasons are of very obscure and difficult research, and our masters either lightly pass them over, or not daring so much as to touch them, precipitate themselves into the liberty and protection of custom, there puffing themselves out and triumphing to their heart's content: such as will not suffer themselves to be withdrawn from this original source, do yet commit a greater error, and subject themselves to wild opinions; witness Chrysippus who, in so many of his writings, has strewed the little account he made of incestuous conjunctions, committed with how near relations soever.
Whoever would disengage himself from this violent prejudice of custom, would find several things received with absolute and undoubting opinion, that have no other support than the hoary head and riveled face of ancient usage. But the mask taken off, and things being referred to the decision of truth and reason, he will find his judgment as it were altogether overthrown, and yet restored to a much more sure estate. For example, I shall ask him, what can be more strange than to see a people obliged to obey laws they never understood; bound in all their domestic affairs, as marriages, donations, wills, sales and purchases to rules they cannot possibly know, being neither written nor published in their own language, and of which they are of necessity to purchase both the interpretation and the use? Not according to the ingenious opinion of Isocrates, who counseled his king to make the traffics and negotiations of his subjects, free, frank, and of profit to them, and their quarrels 
and disputes burdensome, and laden with heavy impositions and penalties; but, by a prodigious opinion, to make sale of reason itself, and to give to laws a course of merchandise. I think myself obliged to fortune that, as our historians report, it was a Gascon gentleman, a countryman of mine, who first opposed Charlemagne, when he attempted to impose upon us Latin and imperial laws.  What can be more savage, than to see a nation where, by lawful custom, the office of a judge is bought and sold, where judgments are paid for with ready money, and where justice may legitimately be denied to him that has not wherewithal to pay; a merchandise in so great repute, as in a government to create a fourth estate of wrangling lawyers, to add to the three ancient ones of the church, nobility and people; which fourth estate, having the laws in their own hands, and sovereign power over men's lives and fortunes, makes another body separate from nobility: whence it comes to pass, that there are 
double laws, those of honor and those of justice, in many things altogether opposite one to another; the nobles as rigorously condemning a lie taken, as the other do a lie revenged: by the law of arms, he shall be degraded from all nobility and honor who puts up with an affront; and by the civil law, he who vindicates his reputation by revenge incurs a capital punishment; he who applies himself to the law for reparation of an offense none to his honor, disgraces himself; and he who does not, is censured and punished by the law. Yet of these two so different things, both of them referring to one head, the one has the charge of peace, the war; these have the profit, these the honor; those the wisdom, these the virtue; those the word, these the action; those justice, these valor; those reason, these force; those the long robe, these the short: divided between them.  For what concerns indifferent things, as clothes, who is there seeking to bring them back to their true use, which is 
the body's service and convenience, and upon which their original grace and fitness depend; for the most fantastic, in my opinion, that can be imagined, I will instance among others, our flat caps, that long tail of velvet that hangs down from our women's heads, with its party-colored trappings; and that vain and futile model of a member we cannot in modesty so much as name, which nevertheless we make show and parade of in public. These considerations, notwithstanding, will not prevail upon any understanding man to decline the common mode; but, on the contrary, methinks, all singular and particular fashions are rather marks of folly and vain affectation, than of sound reason, and that a wise man ought, within, to withdraw and retire his soul from the crowd, and there keep it at liberty and in power to judge freely of things; but, as to externals, absolutely to follow and conform himself to the fashion of the time. Public society has nothing to do with our thoughts, but the rest, 
as our actions, our labors, our fortunes, and our lives, we are to lend and abandon them to its service, and to the common opinion; as did that good and great Socrates who refused to preserve his life by a disobedience to the magistrate, though a very wicked and unjust one: for it is the rule of rules, the general law of laws, that every one observe those of the place wherein he lives.   Nomoiz epesthai toisin egchorioiz kalon.   And now to another point. It is a very great doubt, whether any so manifest benefit can accrue from the alteration of a law received, let it be what it will, as there is danger and inconvenience in altering it; forasmuch as government is a structure composed of divers parts and members joined and united together, with so strict connection, that it is impossible to stir so much as one brick or stone, but the whole body will be sensible of it. The legislator of the Thurians ordained, that whosoever would go about either to abolish an old law, or to 
establish a new, should present himself with a halter about his neck to the people to the end, that if the innovation he would introduce should not be approved by every one, he might immediately be hanged; and he of the Lacedaemonians employed his life, to obtain from his citizens a faithful promise, that none of his laws should be violated. The Ephorus who so rudely cut the two strings that Phrynis had added to music, never stood to examine whether that addition made better harmony, or that by its means the instrument was more full and complete; it was enough for him to condemn the invention, that it was a novelty, and an alteration of the old fashion. Which also is the meaning of the old rusty sword carried before the magistracy of Marseilles.  For my own part, I have a great aversion from novelty, what face or what pretense soever it may carry along with it, and have reason, having been an eyewitness of the great evils it has produced. For those for which for so many years 
have lain so heavy upon us, it is not wholly accountable; but one may say, with color enough, that it has accidentally produced and begotten the mischiefs and ruin that have since happened, both without and against it; it, principally, we are to accuse for these disorders.   "Heu! patior telis vulnera facta meis."   They who give the first shock to a state, are almost naturally the first overwhelmed in its ruin; the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first motor; he beats and disturbs the water for another's net. The unity and contexture of this monarchy, of this grand edifice, having been ripped and torn in her old age, by this thing called innovation, has since laid open a rent, and given sufficient admittance to such injuries: the royal majesty with greater difficulty declines from the summit to the middle, then it falls and tumbles headlong from the middle to the bottom. But if the inventors do the greater mischief, the imitators are more 
vicious, to follow examples of which they have felt and punished both the horror and the offense. And if there can be any degree of honor in ill-doing, these last must yield to the others the glory of contriving, and the courage of making the sorts of new disorders easily draw, from this primitive and ever-flowing fountain, examples and precedents to trouble and discompose our government; we read in our very laws, made for the remedy of this first evil, the beginning and pretenses of all sorts of wicked enterprises; and that befals us, which Thucydides said of the civil wars of his time, that, in favor of public vices, they gave them new and more plausible names for their excuse, sweetening and disguising their true titles; which must be done, forsooth, to reform our conscience and belief: "honesta oratio est;" but the best pretence for innovation is of very dangerous consequence: "adeo nihil motum ex antiquo probabile est." And freely to speak my thoughts, it argues a strange 
self-love and great presumption to be so fond of one's own opinions, that a public peace must be overthrown to establish them, and to introduce so many inevitable mischiefs, and so dreadful a corruption of manners, as a civil war and the mutations of state consequent to it, always bring in their train, and to introduce them, in a thing of so high concern, into the bowels of one's own country. Can there be worse husbandry than to set up so many certain and knowing vices against errors that are only contested and disputable? And are there any worse sorts of vices than those committed against a man's own conscience, and the natural light of his own reason? The senate, upon the dispute between it and the people about the administration of their religion, was bold enough to return this evasion for current pay: "Ad deos id magis, quam ad se, pertinere: ipsos visuros, ne sacra sua polluantur;" according to what the oracle answered to those of Delphos who, fearing to be invaded by the 
Persians, in the Median war, inquired of Apollo, how they should dispose of the holy treasure of his temple; whether they should hide, or remove it to some other place? He returned them answer, that they should stir nothing from thence, and only take care of themselves, for he was sufficient to look to what belonged to him.  The Christian religion has all the marks of the utmost utility and justice: but none more manifest than the severe injunction it lays indifferently on all to yield absolute obedience to the civil magistrate, and to maintain and defend the laws. Of which, what a wonderful example has the divine wisdom left us, that, to establish the salvation of mankind, and to conduct His glorious victory over death and sin, would do it after no other way, but at the mercy of our ordinary forms of justice, subjecting the progress and issue of so high and so salutiferous an effect, to the blindness and injustice of our customs and observances; sacrificing the innocent blood 
of so many of His elect, and so long a loss of so many years, to the maturing of this inestimable fruit? There is a vast difference between the case of one who follows the forms and laws of his country, and of another who will undertake to regulate and change them; of whom the first pleads simplicity, obedience, and example for his excuse, who, whatever he shall do, it cannot be imputed to malice; 'tis at the worst but misfortune: "Quis est enim, quem non moveat clarissimis monumentis testata consignataque antiquisas?" besides what Isocrates says, that defect is nearer allied to moderation than excess: the other is a much more ruffling gamester; for whosoever shall take upon him to choose and alter, usurps the authority of judging, and should look well about him, and make it his business to discern clearly the defect of what he would abolish, and the virtue of what he is about to introduce.  This so vulgar consideration, is that which settled me in my station, and kept even my 
most extravagant and ungoverned youth under the rein, so as not to burden my shoulders with so great a weight, as to render myself responsible for a science of that importance, and in this to dare what in my better and more mature judgment I durst not do in the most easy and indifferent things I had been instructed in, and wherein the temerity of judging is of no consequence at all; it seeming to me very unjust to go about to subject public and established customs and institutions to the weakness and instability of a private and particular fancy (for private reason has but a private jurisdiction), and to attempt that upon the divine, which no government will endure a man should do, upon the civil laws; with which, though human reason has much more commerce than with the other, yet are they sovereignly judged by their own proper judges, and the extreme sufficiency serves only to expound and set forth the law and custom received, and neither to wrest it, nor to introduce anything 
of innovation. If, sometimes, the divine providence has gone beyond the rules to which it has necessarily bound and obliged us men, it is not to give us any dispensation to do the same; those are master strokes of the divine hand, which we are not to imitate, but to admire, and extraordinary examples, marks of express and particular purposes, of the nature of miracles, presented before us for manifestations of its almightiness, equally above both our rules and force, which it would be folly and impiety to attempt to represent and imitate; and that we ought not to follow, but to contemplate with the greatest reverence: acts of his personage, and not for us. Cotta very opportunely declares: "Quum de religione agitur, Ti. Coruncanium, P. Scipionem, P. Scaevolam pontifices maximos, non Zenonem, aut Cleanthem, aut Chrysippum, sequor." God knows in the present quarrel of our civil war, where there are a hundred articles to dash out and to put in, great and very considerable, how many 
there are who can truly boast they have exactly and perfectly weighed and understood the grounds and reasons of the one and the other party; 'tis a number, if they make any number, that would be able to give us very little disturbance. But what becomes of all the rest, under what ensigns do they march, in what quarter do they lie? Theirs have the same effect with other weak and ill-applied medicines; they have only set the humors they would purge more violently in work, stirred and exasperated by the conflict, and left them still behind. The potion was too weak to purge, but strong enough to weaken us; so that it does not work, but we keep it still in our bodies, and reap nothing from the operation but intestine gripes and dolors.  So it is, nevertheless, that Fortune, still reserving her authority in defiance of whatever we are able to do or say, sometimes presents us with a necessity so urgent, that 'tis requisite the laws should a little yield and give way; and when one 
opposes the increase of an innovation that thus intrudes itself by violence, to keep a man's self in so doing in all places and in all things within bounds and rules against those who have the power, and to whom all things are lawful that may any way serve to advance their design, who have no other law nor rule but what serves best to their own purpose, 'tis a dangerous obligation and an intolerable inequality:     "Aditum nocendi perfido praestat fides," forasmuch as the ordinary discipline of a healthful state does not provide against these extraordinary accidents; it presupposes a body that supports itself in its principal members and offices, and a common consent to its obedience and observation. A legitimate proceeding is cold, heavy, and constrained, and not fit to make head against a headstrong and unbridled proceeding. 'Tis known to be, to this day, cast in the dish of those two great men, Octavius and Cato, in the two civil wars of Sylla and Caesar, that they would 
rather suffer their country to undergo the last extremities, than relieve their fellow-citizens at the expense of its laws, or be guilty of any innovation; for, in truth, in these last necessities, where there is no other remedy, it would, peradventure, be more discreetly done to stoop and yield a little to receive the blow, than, by opposing without possibility of doing good, to give occasion to violence to trample all under foot; and better to make the laws do what they can when they cannot do what they would. After this manner did he who suspended them for four-and-twenty hours, and he who, for once, shifted a day in the calendar, and that other who of the month of June made a second of May. The Lacedaemonians themselves, who were so religious observers of the laws of their country, being straitened by one of their own edicts, by which it was expressly forbidden to choose the same man twice to be admiral; and on the other side, their affairs necessarily requiring that 
Lysander should again take upon him that command, they made one Aratus admiral, 'tis true, but withal, Lysander went superintendent of the navy; and, by the same subtlety, one of their ambassadors being sent to the Athenians to obtain the revocation of some decree, and Pericles remonstrating to him, that it was forbidden to take away the tablet wherein a law had once been engrossed, he advised him to turn it only; that being not forbidden; and Plutarch commends Philopoemen, that being born to command, he knew how to do it, not only according to the laws but also to overrule even the laws themselves, when the public necessity so required. 
  II. OF THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.
To Madame Diane de Foix, Comtesse de Gurson.  I never yet saw that father, but let his son be never so decrepit or deformed, would not, notwithstanding, own him: not, nevertheless, if he were not totally besotted, and blinded with his paternal affection, that he did not well enough discern his defects: but that with all defaults, he was still his. Just so, I see better than any other, that all I write here are but the idle of a man that has only nibbled upon the outward crust of sciences in his nonage, and only retained a general and formless image of them; who has got a little snatch of everything, and nothing of the whole, a la Francoise. For I know, in general, that there is such a thing as physic, as jurisprudence; four parts in mathematics, and, roughly, what all these aim and point at; and peradventure, I yet know farther, what sciences in general pretend unto, in order to the service of our life: but to dive farther than that, and to have cudgeled my brains in the study 
of Aristotle, the monarch of all modern learning, or particularly addicted myself to any one science, I have done it; neither is there any one art of which I am able to draw the first lineaments and dead color; insomuch that there is not a boy of the lowest form in a school, that may not pretend to be wiser than I, who am not able to examine him in his first lesson, which, if I am at any time forced upon, I am necessitated, in my own defense, to ask him, unaptly enough, some universal questions, such as may serve to try his natural understanding; a lesson as strange and unknown to him, as his is to me. I never seriously settled myself to the reading any book of solid learning but Plutarch and Seneca; and there, like the Danaides, I eternally fill, and it as constantly runs out; something of which drops upon this paper, but little or nothing stays with me. History is my particular game as to matter of reading, or else poetry, for which I have particular kindness and esteem: for, 
as Cleanthes said, as the voice, forced through the narrow passage of a trumpet, comes out more forcible and shrill; so, methinks, a sentence pressed within the harmony of verse, darts out more briskly upon the understanding, and strikes my ear and apprehension with a smarter and more pleasing effect. As to the natural parts I have, of which this is the essay, I find them to bow under the burden; my fancy and judgment do but grope in the dark, tripping and stumbling in the way, and when I have gone as far as I can, I am in no degree satisfied; I discover still a new and greater extent of land before me, with a troubled and imperfect sight and wrapped up in clouds, that I am not able to penetrate. And taking upon me to write indifferently of whatever comes into my head, and therein making use of nothing but my own proper and natural means, if it befall me, as ofttimes it does, accidentally to meet in any good author, the same heads and commonplaces upon which I have attempted to 
write (as I did but just now in Plutarch's "Discourse of the Force of Imagination"), to see myself so weak and so forlorn, so heavy and so flat, in comparison of those better writers, I at once pity or despise myself. Yet do I please myself with this, that my opinions have often the honor and good fortune to jump with theirs, and that I go in the same path, though at a very great distance, and can say, "Ah, that is so." I am farther satisfied to find, that I have a quality, which every one is not blessed withal, which is, to discern the vast difference between them and me; and notwithstanding all that, suffer my own inventions, low and feeble as they are, to run on in their career, without mending or plastering up the defects that this comparison has laid open to my own view. And, in plain truth, a man had need of a good strong back to keep pace with these people. The indiscreet scribblers of our times, who among their laborious nothings, insert whole sections and pages out of 
ancient authors, with a design, by that means, to illustrate their own writings, do quite contrary; for this infinite dissimilitude of ornaments renders the complexion of their own compositions so sallow and deformed, that they lose much more than they get. The philosophers, Chrysippus and Epicurus, were in this of two quite contrary humors: the first not only in his books mixed passages and sayings of other authors, but entire pieces, and, in one, the whole "Medea" of Euripides; which gave Apollodorus occasion to say, that should a man pick out of his writings all that was none of his, he would leave him nothing but blank paper: whereas the latter, quite contrary, in three hundred volumes that he left behind him, has not so much as any one quotation. I happened the other day upon this piece of fortune; I was reading a French book, where after I had a long time run dreaming over a great many words, so dull, so insipid, so void of all wit or common sense, that indeed they were 
only French words; after a long and tedious travel, I came at last to meet with a piece that was lofty, rich, and elevated to the very clouds; of which, had I found either the declivity easy or the ascent gradual, there had been some excuse; but it was so perpendicular a precipice, and so wholly cut off from the rest of the work, that, by the six first words, I found myself flying into the other world, and thence discovered the vale whence I came so deep and low, that I have never had since the heart to descend into it any more. If I should set out one of my discourses with such rich spoils as these, it would but too evidently manifest the imperfection of my own writing. To reprehend the fault in others that I am guilty of myself, appears to me no more unreasonable, than to condemn, as I often do, those of others in myself: they are to be everywhere reproved, and ought to have no sanctuary allowed them. I know very well how audaciously I myself, at every turn, attempt to equal 
myself to my thefts, and to make my style go hand in hand with them, not without a temerarious hope of deceiving the eyes of my reader from discerning the difference; but withal, it is as much by the benefit of my application, that I hope to do it, as by that of my invention or any force of my own. Besides, I do not offer to contend with the whole body of these champions, nor hand to hand with any one of them: 'tis only by flights and little light attempts that I engage them; I do not grapple with them, but try their strength only, and never engage so far as I make a show to do. If I could hold them in play, I were a brave fellow; for I never attack them, but where they are most sinewy and strong. To cover a man's self (as I have seen some do) with another man's armor, so as not to discover so much as his fingers' ends; to carry on a design (as it is not hard for a man that has anything of a scholar in him, in an ordinary subject to do) under old inventions, patched up here 
and there with his own trumpery, and then to endeavor to conceal the theft, and to make it pass for his own, is first injustice and meanness of spirit in those who do it, who having nothing in them of their own fit to procure them a reputation, endeavor to do it by attempting to impose things upon the world in their own name, which they have no manner of title to; and, next, a ridiculous folly to content themselves with acquiring the ignorant approbation of the vulgar by such a pitiful cheat, at the price at the same time of degrading themselves in the eyes of men of understanding, who turn up their noses at all this borrowed incrustation, yet whose praise alone is worth the having. For my own part, there is nothing I would not sooner do than that, neither have I said so much of others, but to get a better opportunity to explain myself. Nor in this do I glance at the composers of centos, who declare themselves such; of which sort of writers I have in my time known many very 
ingenious, and particularly one under the name of Capilupus, besides the ancients. These are really men of wit, and that make it appear they are so, both by that and other ways of writing; as for example, Lipsius, in that learned and laborious contexture of his politics. But, be it how it will, and how inconsiderable soever these essays of mine may be, I will say I never intended to conceal them, no more than my old bald grizzled pate before them, where the painter has presented you not with a perfect face, but with mine. For these are my own particular opinions and fancies, and I deliver them as only what I myself believe, and not for what is to be believed by others. I have no other end in this writing, but only to discover myself, who, also, shall, peradventure, be another thing tomorrow, if I chance to meet any new instruction to change me. I have no authority to be believed, neither do I desire it, being too conscious of my own inerudition to be able to instruct others. 
A friend of mine, then, having read the preceding chapter, the other day told me, that I should a little farther have extended my discourse on the education of children. Now, madame, if I had any sufficiency in this subject, I could not possibly better employ it, than to present my best instructions to the little gentleman that threatens you shortly with a happy birth (for you are too generous to begin otherwise than with a male); for having had so great a hand in the treaty of your marriage, I have a certain particular right and interest in the greatness and prosperity of the issue that shall spring from it; besides that, your having had the best of my services so long in possession, sufficiently obliges me to desire the honor and advantage of all wherein you shall be concerned. But, in truth, all I understand as to that particular is only this, that the greatest and most important difficulty of human science is the education of children. For as in agriculture, the husbandry 
that is to precede planting, as also planting itself, is certain, plain, and well known; but after that which is planted comes to life, there is a great deal more to be done, more art to be used, more care to be taken, and much more difficulty to cultivate and bring it to perfection; so it is with men; it is no hard matter to get children; but after they are born, then begins the trouble, solicitude, and care rightly to train, principle, and bring them up. The symptoms of their inclinations in that tender age are so obscure, and the promises so uncertain and fallacious, that it is very hard to establish any solid judgment or conjecture upon them. Look at Cimon, for example, and Themistocles, and a thousand others, who very much deceived the expectation men had of them. Cubs of bears and puppies readily discover their natural inclination; but men, so soon as ever they are grown up, applying themselves to certain habits, engaging themselves in certain opinions, and conforming 
themselves to particular laws and customs, easily alter, or at least disguise, their true and real disposition; and yet it is hard to force the propension of nature. Whence it comes to pass, that for not having chosen the right course, we often take very great pains, and consume a good part of our time in training up children to things, for which, by their natural constitution, they are totally unfit. In this difficulty, nevertheless, I am clearly of opinion, that they ought to be elemented in the best and most advantageous studies, without taking too much notice of, or being too superstitious in those light prognostics they give of themselves in their tender years, and to which Plato, in his Republic, gives, methinks, too much authority. Madame, science, is a very great ornament, and a thing of marvelous use, especially in persons raised to that degree of fortune in which you are. And, in truth, in persons of mean and low condition, it cannot perform its true and genuine 
office, being naturally more prompt to assist in the conduct of war, in the government of peoples, in negotiating the leagues and friendships of princes and foreign nations, than in forming a syllogism in logic, in pleading a process in law, or in prescribing a dose of pills in physic. Wherefore, madame, believing you will not omit this so necessary feature in the education of your children, who yourself have tasted its sweetness, and are of a learned extraction (for we yet have the writings of the ancient Counts of Foix, from whom my lord, your husband, and yourself, are both of you descended, and Monsieur de Candale, your uncle, every day obliges the world with others, which will extend the knowledge of this quality in your family for so many succeeding ages), I will, upon this occasion, presume to acquaint your ladyship, with one particular fancy of my own, contrary to the common method, which is all I am able to contribute to your service in this affair. The charge of 
the tutor you shall provide for your son, upon the choice of whom depends the whole success of his education, has several other great and considerable parts and duties required in so important a trust, besides that of which I am about to speak: these, however, I shall not mention, as being unable to add anything of moment to the common rules: and in this, wherein I take upon me to advise, he may follow it so far only as it shall appear advisable. For a boy of quality then, who pretends to letters not upon the account of profit (for so mean an object as that is unworthy of the grace and favor of the Muses, and moreover, in it a man directs his service to and depends upon others), nor so much for outward ornament, as for his own proper and peculiar use, and to furnish and enrich himself within, having rather a desire to come out an accomplished cavalier than a mere scholar or learned man; for such a one, I say, I would, also, have his friends solicitous to find him out a tutor, 
who has rather a well-made than a well-filled head; seeking, indeed, both the one and the other, but rather of the two to prefer manners and judgment to mere learning, and that this man should exercise his charge after a new method. 'Tis the custom of pedagogues to be eternally thundering in their pupil's ears, as they were pouring into a funnel, while the business of the pupil is only to repeat what the others have said: now I would have a tutor to correct this error, and, that at the very first, he should, according to the capacity he has to deal with, put it to the test, permitting his pupil himself to taste things, and of himself to discern and choose them, sometimes opening the way to him, and sometimes leaving him to open it for himself; that is, I would not have him alone to invent and speak, but that he should also hear his pupil speak in turn. Socrates, and since him Arcesilaus, made first their scholars speak, and then they spoke to them. "Obest plerumque iis, qui 
discere volunt, auctoritas eorum, qui docent." It is good to make him, like a young horse, trot before him that he may judge of his going and how much he is to abate of his own speed, to accommodate himself to the vigor and capacity of the other. For want of which due proportion we spoil all; which also to know how to adjust, and to keep within an exact and due measure, is one of the hardest things I know, and 'tis the effect of a high and well-tempered soul to know how to condescend to such puerile motions and to govern and direct them. I walk firmer and more secure up hill than down. Such as, according to our common way of teaching, undertake, with one and the same lesson, and the same measure of direction, to instruct several boys of differing and unequal capacities, are infinitely mistaken; and 'tis no wonder, if in a whole multitude of scholars, there are not found above two or three who bring away any good account of their time and discipline. Let the master not only 
examine him about the grammatical construction of the bare words of his lesson, but about the sense and substance of them, and let him judge of the profit he has made, not by the testimony of his memory, but by that of his life. Let him make him put what he has learned into a hundred several forms, and accommodate it to so many several subjects, to see if he yet rightly comprehends it, and has made it his own, taking instruction of his progress by the pedagogic institutions of Plato. 'Tis a sign of crudity and indigestion to disgorge what we eat in the same condition it was swallowed; the stomach has not performed its office unless it have altered the form and condition of what was committed to it to concoct. Our minds work only upon trust, when bound and compelled to follow the appetite of another's fancy, enslaved and captivated under the authority of another's instruction; we have been so subjected to the trammel, that we have no free, nor natural pace of our own; our 
own vigor and liberty are extinct and gone: "Nunquam tutelae suae fiunt." I was privately carried at Pisa to see a very honest man, but so great an Aristotelian, that his most usual thesis was: "That the touchstone and square of all solid imagination, and of all truth, was an absolute conformity to Aristotle's doctrine; and that all besides was nothing but inanity and chimera; for that he had seen all, and said all." A position, that for having been a little too injuriously and broadly interpreted, brought him once and long kept him in great danger of the Inquisition at Rome. Let him make him examine and thoroughly sift everything he reads, and lodge nothing in his fancy upon simple authority and upon trust. Aristotle's principles will then be no more principles to him, than those of Epicurus and the Stoics: let this. diversity of opinions be propounded to, and laid before him; he will himself choose, if he be able; if not, he will remain in doubt.    "Che, non men che 
saper, dubbiar m' aggrata," for, if he embrace the opinions of Xenophon and Plato, by his own reason, they will no more be theirs, but become his own. Who follows another, follows nothing, finds nothing, nay, is inquisitive after nothing. "Non sumus sub rege; sibi quisque se vindicet." Let him at least, know that he knows. It will be necessary that he imbibe their knowledge, not that he be corrupted with their precepts; and no matter if he forgot where he had his learning, provided he know how to apply it to his own use. Truth and reason are common to every one, and are no more his who spake them first, than his who speaks them after: 'tis no more according to Plato, than according to me, since both he and I equally see and understand them. Bees cull their several sweets from this flower and that blossom, here and there where they find them, but themselves afterward make the honey, which is all and purely their own, and no more thyme and marjoram: so the several 
fragments he borrows from others, he will transform and shuffle together to compile a work that shall be absolutely his own; that is to say, his judgment: his instruction, labor and study, tend to nothing else but to form that. He is not obliged to discover whence he got the materials that have assisted him, but only to produce what he has himself done with them. Men that live upon pillage and borrowing, expose their purchases and buildings to every one's view: but do not proclaim how they came by the money. We do not see the fees and perquisites of a gentleman of the long robe; but we see the alliances wherewith he fortifies himself and his family, and the titles and honors he has obtained for him and his. No man divulges his revenue; or at least, which way it comes in: but every one publishes his acquisitions. The advantages of our study are to become better and more wise. 'Tis, says Epicharmus, the understanding that sees and hears, 'tis the understanding that improves 
everything, that orders everything, and that acts, rules, and reigns: all other faculties are blind, and deaf, and without soul. And certainly we render it timorous and servile, in not allowing it the liberty and privilege to do anything of itself. Whoever asked his pupil what he thought of grammar or rhetoric, and of such and such a sentence of Cicero? Our masters stick them, full feathered, in our memories, and there establish them like oracles, of which the letters and syllables are of the substance of the thing. To know by rote, is no knowledge, and signifies no more but only to retain what one has intrusted to our memory. That which a man rightly knows and understands, he is the free disposer of at his own full liberty, without any regard to the author from whence he had it or fumbling over the leaves of his book. A mere bookish learning is a poor, paltry learning; it may serve for ornament, but there is yet no foundation for any superstructure to be built upon it, according 
to the opinion of Plato, who says that constancy, faith, and sincerity, are the true philosophy, and the other sciences, that are directed to other ends, mere adulterate paint. I could wish that Paluel or Pompey, those two noted dancers of my time, could have taught us to cut capers, by only seeing them do it, without stirring from our places, as these men pretend to inform the understanding, without ever setting it to work; or that we could learn to ride, handle a pike, touch a lute, or sing, without the trouble of practice, as these attempt to make us judge and speak well, without exercising us in judging or speaking. Now in this initiation of our studies and in their progress, whatsoever presents itself before us is book sufficient; a roguish trick of a page, a sottish mistake of a servant, a jest at the table, are so many new subjects. And for this reason, conversation with men is of very great use and travel into foreign countries; not to bring back (as most of our young 
monsieurs do) an account only of how many paces Santa Rotonda is in circuit; or of the richness of Signora Livia's petticoats; or, as some others, how much Nero's face, in a statue in such an old ruin, is longer and broader than that made for him on some medal; but to be able chiefly to give an account of the humors, manners, customs and laws of those nations where he has been, and that we may whet and sharpen our wits by rubbing them against those of others. I would that a boy should be sent abroad very young, and first, so as to kill two birds with one stone, into those neighboring nations whose language is most differing from our own, and to which, if it be not formed betimes, the tongue will grow too stiff to bend. And also 'tis the general opinion of all, that a child should not be brought up in his mother's lap. Mothers are too tender, and their natural affection is apt to make the most discreet of them all so overfond, that they can neither find in their hearts to give 
them due correction for the faults they commit, nor suffer them to be inured to hardships and hazards, as they ought to be. They will not endure to see them return all dust and sweat from their exercise, to drink cold drink when they are hot, nor see them mount an unruly horse, nor take a foil in hand against a rude fencer, or so much as to discharge a carbine. And yet there is no remedy; whoever will breed a boy to be good for anything when he comes to be a man, must by no means spare him when young, and must very often transgress the rules of physic:      "Vitamque sub dio, et trepidis agat  In rebus." It is not enough to fortify his soul: you are also to make his sinews strong; for the soul will be oppressed if not assisted by the members, and would have too hard a task to discharge two offices alone. I know very well, to my cost, how much mine groans under the burden, from being accommodated with a body so tender and indisposed, as eternally leans and presses upon her; and 
often in my reading perceive that our masters, in their writings, make examples pass for magnanimity and fortitude of mind, which really are rather toughness of skin and hardness of bones; for I have seen men, women, and children, naturally born of so hard and insensible a constitution of body, that a sound cudgeling has been less to them than a flirt with a finger would have been to me, and that would neither cry out, wince, nor shrink, for a good swinging beating; and when wrestlers counterfeit the philosophers in patience, 'tis rather strength of nerves than stoutness of heart. Now to be inured to undergo labor, is to be accustomed to endure pain: "labor callum obducit dolori." A boy is to be broken into the toil and roughness of exercise, so as to be trained up to the pain and suffering of dislocations, cholics, cauteries, and even imprisonment and the rack itself; for he may come, by misfortune, to be reduced to the worst of these, which (as this world goes) is sometimes 
inflicted on the good as well as the bad. As for proof, in our present civil war whoever draws his sword against the laws, threatens the honestest men with the whip and the halter. And, moreover, by living at home, the authority of this governor, which ought to be sovereign over the boy he has received into his charge, is often checked and hindered by the presence of parents; to which may also be added, that the respect the whole family pay him, as their master's son, and the knowledge he has of the estate and greatness he is heir to, are, in my opinion, no small inconveniences in these tender years. And yet, even in this conversing with men I spoke of but now, I have observed this vice, that instead of gathering observations from others, we make it our whole business to lay ourselves upon them, and are more concerned how to expose and set out our own commodities, than how to increase our stock by acquiring new. Silence, therefore, and modesty are very advantageous qualities 
in conversation. One should, therefore, train up this boy to be sparing and a husband of his knowledge when he has acquired it; and to forbear taking exceptions at or reproving every idle saying or ridiculous story that is said or told in his presence; for it is a very unbecoming rudeness to carp at everything that is not agreeable to our own palate. Let him be satisfied with correcting himself, and not seem to condemn everything in another he would not do himself, nor dispute it as against common customs. "Licet sapere sine pompa, sine invidia." Let him avoid these vain and uncivil images of authority, this childish ambition of coveting to appear better bred and more accomplished, than he really will, by such carriage, discover himself to be. And, as if opportunities of interrupting and reprehending were not to be omitted, to desire thence to derive the reputation of something more than ordinary. For as it becomes none but great poets to make use of the poetical license, so 
it is intolerable for any but men of great and illustrious souls to assume privilege above the authority of custom; "si quid Socrates aut Aristippus contra morem et consuetudinem fecerunt, idem sibi ne arbitretur licere: magnis enim illi et divinis bonis hanc licentiam assequebantur." Let him be instructed not to engage in discourse or dispute but with a champion worthy of him, and, even there, not to make use of all the little subtleties that may seem pat for his purpose, but only such arguments as may best serve him. Let him be taught to be curious in the election and choice of his reasons, to abominate impertinence, and, consequently, to affect brevity; but, above all, let him be lessoned to acquiesce and submit to truth so soon as ever he shall discover it, whether in his opponent's argument, or upon better consideration of his own; for he shall never be preferred to the chair for a mere clatter of words and syllogisms, and is no further engaged to any argument whatever, 
than as he shall in his own judgment approve it: nor yet is arguing a trade, where the liberty of recantation and getting off upon better thoughts, are to be sold for ready money: "neque, ut omnia, quae praescripta et imperata sint, defendat, necessitate ulla cogitur." If his governor be of my humor, he will form his will to be a very good and loyal subject to his prince, very affectionate to his person, and very stout in his quarrel; but withal he will cool in him the desire of having any other tie to his service than public duty. Besides several other inconveniences that are inconsistent with the liberty every honest man ought to have, a man's judgment, being bribed and prepossessed by these particular obligations, is either blinded and less free to exercise its function, or is blemished with ingratitude and indiscretion. A man that is purely a courtier, can neither have power nor will to speak or think otherwise than favorably and well of a master, who, among so many 
millions of other subjects, has picked out him with his own hand to nourish and advance; this favor, and the profit flowing from it, must needs, and not without some show of reason, corrupt his freedom and dazzle him; and we commonly see these people speak in another kind of phrase than is ordinarily spoken by others of the same nation, though what they say in that courtly language is not much to be believed. Let his conscience and virtue be eminently manifest in his speaking, and have only reason for their guide. Make him understand, that to acknowledge the error he shall discover in his own argument, though only found out by himself, is an effect of judgment and sincerity, which are the principal things he is to seek after; that obstinacy and contention are common qualities, most appearing in mean souls; that to revise and correct himself, to forsake an unjust argument in the height and heat of dispute, are rare, great, and philosophical qualities. Let him be advised; 
being in company, to have his eye and ear in every corner, for I find that the places of greatest honor are commonly seized upon by men that have least in them, and that the greatest fortunes are seldom accompanied with the ablest parts. I have been present when, while they at the upper end of the chamber have only been commending the beauty of the arras, or the flavor of the wine, many things that have been very finely said at the lower end of the table have been lost or thrown away. Let him examine every man's talent; a peasant, a bricklayer, a passenger: one may learn something from every one of these in their several capacities, and something will be picked out of their discourse whereof some use may be made at one time or another; nay, even the folly and impertinence of others will contribute to his instruction. By observing the graces and manners of all he sees, he will create to himself an emulation of the good, and a contempt of the bad. Let an honest curiosity 
be suggested to his fancy of being inquisitive after everything; whatever there is singular and rare near the place where he is, let him go and see it; a fine house, a noble fountain, an eminent man, the place where a battle has been anciently fought, the passages of Caesar and Charlemagne:    "Quae tellus sit lenta gelu, quae putris ab aestu,     Ventus in Italiam quis bene vela ferat."  Let him inquire into the manners, revenues and alliances of princes, things in themselves very pleasant to learn, and very useful to know. In this conversing with men, I mean also, and principally, those who only live in the records of history; he shall, by reading those books, converse with the great and heroic souls of the best ages. 'Tis an idle and vain study to those who make it by so doing it after a negligent manner, but to those who do it with care and observation, 'tis a study of inestimable fruit and value; and the only study, as Plato reports, that the Lacedaemonians reserved 
to themselves. What profit shall he not reap as to the business of men, by reading the lives of Plutarch? But, withal, let my governor remember to what end his instructions are principally directed, and that he do not so much imprint in his pupil's memory the date of the ruin of Carthage, as the manners of Hannibal and Scipio; nor so much where Marcellus died, as why it was unworthy of his duty that he died there. Let him not teach him so much the narrative parts of history as to judge them; the reading of them, in my opinion, is a thing that of all others we apply ourselves unto with the most differing measure. I have read a hundred things in Livy that another has not, or not taken notice of at least; and Plutarch has read a hundred more there than ever I could find, or than, peradventure, that author ever wrote; to some it is merely a grammar study, to others the very anatomy of philosophy, by which the most abstruse parts of our human nature penetrate. There are in 
Plutarch many long discourses very worthy to be carefully read and observed, for he is, in my opinion, of all others the greatest master in that kind of writing; but there are a thousand others which he has only touched and glanced upon, where he only points with his finger to direct us which way we may go if we will, and contents himself sometimes with giving only one brisk hit in the nicest article of the question, whence we are to grope out the rest. As, for example, where he says that the inhabitants of Asia came to be vassals to one only, for not having been able to pronounce one syllable, which is No. Which saying of his gave perhaps matter and occasion to La Boetie to write his "Voluntary Servitude." Only to see him pick out a light action in a man's life, or a mere word that does not seem to amount even to that, is itself a whole discourse. 'Tis to our prejudice that men of understanding should so immoderately affect brevity; no doubt their reputation is the 
better by it, but in the meantime we are the worse. Plutarch had rather we should applaud his judgment than commend his knowledge, and had rather leave us with an appetite to read more, than glutted with that we have already read. He knew very well, that a man may say too much even upon the best subjects, and that Alexandridas justly reproached him who made very good but too long speeches to the Ephori, when he said: "Oh stranger! thou speakest the things thou shouldst speak, but not as thou shouldst speak them." Such as have lean and spare bodies stuff themselves out with clothes; so they who are defective in matter, endeavor to make amends with words. Human understanding is marvelously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses. One asking Socrates of what country he was, he did not make answer, of Athens, but of the world; he whose imagination 
was fuller and wider, embraced the whole world for his country, and extended his society and friendship to all mankind; not as we do, who look no further than our feet. When the vines of my village are nipped with the frost, my parish priest presently concludes, that the indignation of God is gone out against all the human race, and that the cannibals have already got the pip. Who is it, that seeing the havoc of these civil wars of ours, does not cry out, that the machine of the world is near dissolution, and that the day of judgment is at hand; without considering, that many worse things have been seen, and that, in the meantime, people are very merry in a thousand other parts of the earth for all this? For my part, considering the license and impunity that always attend such commotions, I wonder they are so moderate, and that there is no more mischief done. To him who feels the hailstones patter about his ears, the whole hemisphere appears to be in storm and tempest; 
like the ridiculous Savoyard, who said very gravely, that if that simple king of France could have managed his fortune as he should have done, he might in time have come to have been steward of the household to the duke his master: the fellow could not, in his shallow imagination, conceive that there could be anything greater than a duke of Savoy. And, in truth, we are all of us, insensibly, in this error, an error of a very great weight and very pernicious consequence. But whoever shall represent to his fancy, as in a picture, that great image of our mother Nature, in her full majesty and luster, whoever in her face shall read so general and so constant a variety, whoever shall observe himself in that figure, and not himself but a whole kingdom, no bigger than the least touch or prick of a pencil in comparison of the whole, that man alone is able to value things according to their true estimate and grandeur. This great world which some do yet multiply as several species 
under one genus, is the mirror wherein we are to behold ourselves, to be able to know ourselves as we ought to do in the true bias. In short, I would have this to be the book my young gentleman should study with the most attention. So many humors, so many sects, so many judgments, opinions, laws and customs, teach us to judge aright of our own, and inform our understanding to discover its imperfection and natural infirmity, which is no trivial speculation. So many mutations of states and kingdoms, and so many turns and revolutions of public fortune, will make us wise enough to make no great wonder of our own. So many great names, so many famous victories and conquests drowned and swallowed in oblivion, render our hopes ridiculous of eternizing our names by the taking of half-a-score of light horse, or a henroost, which only derives its memory from its ruin. The pride and arrogance of so many foreign pomps and ceremonies, the tumorous majesty of so many courts and 
grandeurs, accustom and fortify our sight without astonishment or winking to behold the lustre of our own; so many millions of men, buried before us, encourage us not to fear to go seek such good company in the other world: and so of all the rest. Pythagoras was wont to say, that our life resembles the great and populous assembly of the Olympic games, wherein some exercise the body, that they may carry away the glory of the prize; others bring merchandise to sell for profit; there are, also, some (and those none of the worst sort) who pursue no other advantage than only to look on, and consider how and why everything is done, and to be spectators of the lives of other men, thereby the better to judge of and regulate their own. To examples may fitly be applied all the profitable discourses of philosophy, to which all human actions, as to their best rule, ought to be especially directed: a scholar shall be taught to know-      "Quid fas optare, quid asper   Utile 
nummus habet; patriae carisque propinquis   Quantum elargiri deceat; quem te Deus esse   Jussit, et humana qua parte locatus es in re;   Quid sumus, aut quidnam victuri gignimur," what it is to know, and what to be ignorant; what ought to be the end and design of study; what valor, temperance and justice are; the difference between ambition and avarice, servitude and subjection, license and liberty; by what token a man may know true and solid contentment; how far death, affliction, and disgrace are to be apprehended:     "Et quo quemque modo fugiatque feratque laborem;" by what secret springs we move, and the reason of our various agitations and irresolutions: for, methinks, the first doctrine with which one should season his understanding, ought to be that which regulates his manners and his sense; that teaches him to know himself, and how both well to die and well to live. Among the liberal sciences, let us begin with that which makes us free; not that they do 
not all serve in some measure to the instruction and use of life, as all other things in some sort also do; but let us make choice of that which directly and professedly serves to that end. If we are once able to restrain the offices of human life within their just and natural limits, we shall find that most of the sciences in use are of no great use to us, and even in those that are, that there are many very unnecessary cavities and dilatations which we had better let alone, and following Socrates' direction, limit the course of our studies to those things only where is a true and real utility:     "Sapere aude,    Incipe; vivendi recte vui prorogat horam,    Rusticus exspectat, dum defluat amnis; at ille    Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis oevum."   'Tis a great foolery to teach our children-  "Quid moveant Pisces, animosaque signa Leonis,   Lotus et Hesperia quid Capricornus aqua," the knowledge of the stars and the motion of the eighth sphere, before their 
own.       "Ti, Pleiadessi Kamoi;      Ti d' astrasin Booteo;" Anaximenes writing to Pythagoras, "To what purpose," said he, "should I trouble myself in searching out the secrets of the stars, having death or slavery continually before my eyes?" for the kings of Persia were at that time preparing to invade his country. Every one ought to say thus, "Being assaulted, as I am by ambition, avarice, temerity, superstition, and having within so many other enemies of life, shall I go cudgel my brains about the world's revolutions?" After having taught him what will make him more wise and good, you may then entertain him with the elements of logic, physics, geometry, rhetoric, and the science which he shall then himself most incline to, his judgment being beforehand formed and fit to choose, he will quickly make his own. The way of instructing him ought to be sometimes by discourse, and sometimes by reading, sometimes his governor shall put the author himself, which he 
shall think most proper for him, into his hands, and sometimes only the marrow and substance of it; and if himself be not conversant enough in books to turn to all the fine discourses the books contain for his purpose, there may some man of learning be joined to him, that upon every occasion shall supply him with what he stands in need of, to furnish it to his pupil. And who can doubt, but that this way of teaching is much more easy and natural than that of Gaza, in which the precepts are so intricate, and so harsh, and the words so vain, lean, and insignificant, that there is no hold to be taken of them, nothing that quickens and elevates the wit and fancy, whereas here the mind has what to feed upon and to digest. This fruit, therefore, is not only without comparison, much more fair and beautiful; but will also be much more early ripe. 'Tis a thousand pities that matters should be at such a pass in this age of ours, that philosophy, even with men of understanding, 
should be looked upon as a vain and fantastic name, a thing of no use, no value, either in opinion or effect, of which I think those ergotisms and petty sophistries, by prepossessing the avenues to it, are the cause. And people are much to blame to represent it to children for a thing of so difficult access, and with such a frowning, grim, and formidable aspect. Who is it that has disguised it thus, with this false, pale, and ghostly countenance? There is nothing more airy, more gay, more frolic, and I had like to have said, more wanton. She preaches nothing but feasting and jollity; a melancholic anxious look shows that she does not inhabit there. Demetrius the grammarian finding in the temple of Delphos a knot of philosophers set chatting together, said to them, "Either I am much deceived, or by your cheerful and pleasant countenances, you are engaged in no very deep discourse." To which one of them, Heracleon the Megarean, replied: "'Tis for such as are puzzled 
about inquiring whether the future tense of the verb Ballo be spelt with a double l or that hunt after the derivation of the comparatives cheiron and beltion, and the superlatives cheiriston and beltiston, to knit their brows while discoursing of their science, but as to philosophical discourses, they always divert and cheer up those that entertain them, and never deject them or make them sad."    "Deprendas animi tormenta latentis in aegro     Corpore; deprendas et gaudia; sumit utrumque     Inde habitum facies."  The soul that lodges philosophy, ought to be of such a constitution of health, as to render the body in like manner healthful too; she ought to make her tranquillity and satisfaction shine so as to appear without, and her contentment ought to fashion the outward behavior to her own mold, and consequently to fortify it with a graceful confidence, an active and joyous carriage, and a serene and contented countenance. The most manifest sign of wisdom is a 
continual cheerfulness; her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene. 'Tis Baroco and Baralipton that render their disciples so dirty and ill-favored, and not she; they do not so much as know her but by hearsay. What! It is she that calms and appeases the storms and tempests of the soul, and who teaches famine and fevers to laugh and sing; and that, not by certain imaginary epicycles, but by natural and manifest reasons. She has virtue for her end; which is not, as the schoolmen say, situate upon the summit of a perpendicular, rugged, inaccessible precipice: such as have approached her find her, quite on the contrary, to be seated in a fair, fruitful, and flourishing plain, from whence she easily discovers all things below; to which place any one may, however, arrive, if he know but the way, through shady, green, and sweetly flourishing avenues, by a pleasant, easy, and smooth descent, like that of the celestial vault. 
'Tis for not having frequented this supreme, this beautiful, triumphant, and amiable, this equally delicious and courageous virtue, this so professed and implacable enemy to anxiety, sorrow, fear, and constraint, who, having nature for her guide, has fortune and pleasure for her companions, that they have gone, according to their own weak imaginations and created this ridiculous, this sorrowful, querulous, despiteful, threatening, terrible image of it to themselves and others, and placed it upon a rock apart, among thorns and brambles, and made of it a hobgoblin to affright people. But the governor that I would have, that is such a one as knows it to be his duty to possess his pupil with as much or more affection than reverence to virtue, will be able to inform him, that the poets have evermore accommodated themselves to the public humor, and make him sensible, that the gods have planted more toil and sweat in the avenues of the cabinets of Venus than in those 
of Minerva. And when he shall once find him begin to apprehend, and shall represent to him a Bradamante or an Angelica for a mistress, a natural, active, generous, and not a viragoish, but a manly beauty, in comparison of a soft, delicate, artificial, simpering, and affected form; the one in the habit of a heroic youth, wearing a glittering helmet, the other tricked up in curls and ribbons like a wanton minx; he will then look upon his own affection as brave and masculine, when he shall choose quite contrary to that effeminate shepherd of Phrygia. Such a tutor will make a pupil digest this new lesson, that the height and value of true virtue consists in the facility, utility, and pleasure of its exercise; so far from difficulty, that boys, as well as men, and the innocent as well as the subtle, may make it their own: it is by order, and not by force, that it is to be acquired. Socrates, her first minion, is so averse to all manner of violence, as totally to 
throw it aside, to slip into the more natural facility of her own progress: 'tis the nursing mother of all human pleasures, who in rendering them just, renders them also pure and permanent; in moderating them, keeps them in breath and appetite; in interdicting those which she herself refuses, whets our desire to those that she allows; and, like a kind and liberal mother, abundantly allows all that nature requires, even to satiety, if not to lassitude: unless we mean to say, that the regimen which stops the toper before he has drunk himself drunk, the glutton before he has eaten to a surfeit, and the lecher before he has got the pox, is an enemy to pleasure. If the ordinary fortune fail, she does without it, and forms another, wholly her own, not so fickle and unsteady as the other. She can be rich, be potent and wise, and knows how to lie upon soft perfumed beds: she loves life, beauty, glory, and health; but her proper and peculiar office is to know how to 
regulate the use of all these good things, and how to lose them without concern: an office much more noble than troublesome, and without which the whole course of life is unnatural, turbulent, and deformed, and there it is indeed, that men may justly represent those monsters upon rocks and precipices. If this pupil shall happen to be of so contrary a disposition, that he had rather hear a tale of a tub than the true narrative of some noble expedition or some wise and learned discourse; who at the beat of drum, that excites the youthful ardor of his companions, leaves that to follow another that calls to a morris or the bears; who would not wish, and find it more delightful and more excellent, to return all dust and sweat victorious from a battle, than from tennis or from a ball, with the prize of those exercises; I see no other remedy, but that he be bound prentice in some good town to learn to make minced pies, though he were the son of a duke; according to 
Plato's precept, that children are to be placed out and disposed of, not according to the wealth, qualities, or condition of the father, but according to the faculties and the capacity of their own souls. Since philosophy is that which instructs us to live and that infancy has there its lessons as well as other ages, why is it not communicated to children betimes?  "Udum et molle lutum est; nunc, nunc properandus, et acri Fingendus sine fine rota."  They begin to teach us to live when we have almost done living. A hundred students have got the pox before they have come to read Aristotle's lecture on temperance. Cicero said, that though he should live two men's ages, he should never find leisure to study the lyric poets; and I find these sophisters yet more deplorably unprofitable. The boy we would breed has a great deal less time to spare; he owes but the first fifteen or sixteen years of his life to education; the remainder is due to action. Let us, therefore, 
employ that short time in necessary instruction. Away with the thorny subtleties of dialectics, they are abuses, things by which our lives can never be amended: take the plain philosophical discourses, learn how rightly to choose, and then rightly to apply them; they are more easy to be understood than one of Bocaccio's novels; a child from nurse is much more capable of them, than of learning to read or to write. Philosophy has discourses proper for childhood, as well as for the decrepit age of men. I am of Plutarch's mind, that Aristotle did not so much trouble his great disciple with the knack of forming syllogisms, or with the elements of geometry, as with infusing into him good precepts concerning valor, prowess, magnanimity, temperance, and the contempt of fear; and with this ammunition, sent him, while yet a boy, with no more than thirty thousand foot, four thousand horse, and but forty-two thousand crowns, to subjugate the empire of the whole earth. For the other arts 
and sciences, he says, Alexander highly indeed commended their excellence and charm, and had them in very great honor and esteem, but not ravished with them to that degree, as to be tempted to affect the practice of them in his own person.      "Petite hinc, juvenesque senesque,    Finem animo certum, miserisque viatica canis." Epicurus, in the beginning of his letter to Meniceus, says, "That neither the youngest should refuse to philosophize, nor the oldest grow weary of it." Who does otherwise, seems tacitly to imply, that either the time of living happily is not yet come, or that it is already past. And yet, for all that, I would not have this pupil of ours imprisoned and made a slave to his book; nor would I have him given up to the morosity and melancholic humor of a sour, ill-natured pedant; I would not have his spirit cowed and subdued, by applying him to the rack, and tormenting him, as some do, fourteen or fifteen hours a day, and so make a pack-horse of him. Neither 
should I think it good, when, by reason of a solitary and melancholic complexion, he is discovered to be overmuch addicted to his book, to nourish that humor in him; for that renders him unfit for civil conversation, and diverts him from better employments. And how many have I seen in my time totally brutified by an immoderate thirst after knowledge? Carneades was so besotted with it, that he would not find time as so much as to comb his head or to pare his nails. Neither would I have his generous manners spoiled and corrupted by the incivility and barbarism of those of another. The French wisdom was anciently turned into proverb: "early, but of no continuance." And, in truth, we yet see, that nothing can be more ingenious and pleasing than the children of France; but they ordinarily deceive the hope and expectation that have been conceived of them; and grown up to be men, have nothing extraordinary or worth taking notice of: I have heard men of good understanding say, these 
colleges of ours to which we send our young people (and of which we have but too many) make them such animals as they are.  But to our little monsieur, a closet, a garden, the table, his bed, solitude and company, morning and evening, all hours shall be the same, and all places to him a study; for philosophy, who, as the formatrix of judgment and manners, shall be his principal lesson, has that privilege to have a hand in everything. The orator Isocrates, being at a feast entreated to speak of his art, all the company were satisfied with and commended his answer: "It is not now a time," said he, "to do what I can do; and that which it is now time to do, I cannot do." For to make orations and rhetorical disputes in a company met together to laugh and make good cheer, had been very unseasonable and improper, and as much might have been said of all the other sciences. But as to what concerns philosophy, that part of it at least that treats of man, and of his offices and duties, 
it has been the common opinion of all wise men, that, out of respect to the sweetness of her conversation, she is ever to be admitted in all sports and entertainments. And Plato, having invited her to his feast, we see after how gentle and obliging a manner, accommodated both to time and place, she entertained the company, though in a discourse of the highest and most important nature.    "Aeque pauperibus prodest locupletibus aeque;     Et, neglecta, aeque pueris senibusque nocebit." By this method of instruction, my young pupil will be much more and better employed than his fellows of the college are. But as the steps we take in walking to and fro in a gallery, though three times as many, do not tire a man so much as those we employ in a formal journey, so our lesson, as it were accidentally occurring, without any set obligation of time or place, and falling naturally into every action, will insensibly insinuate itself. By which means our very exercises and recreations, 
running, wrestling, music, dancing, hunting, riding, and fencing, will prove to be a good part of our study. I would have his outward fashion and mien, and the disposition of his limbs, formed at the same time with his mind. 'Tis not a soul, 'tis not a body that we are training up, but a man, and we ought not to divide him. And, as Plato says, we are not to fashion one without the other, but make them draw together like two horses harnessed to a coach. By which saying of his, does he not seem to allow more time for, and to take more care of, exercises for the body, and to hold that the mind, in a good proportion, does her business at the same time too? As to the rest, this method of education ought to be carried on with a severe sweetness, quite contrary to the practice of our pedants, who, instead of tempting and alluring children to letters by apt and gentle ways, do in truth present nothing before them but rods and ferules, horror and cruelty. Away with this violence! 
away with this compulsion! than which, I certainly believe nothing more dulls and degenerates a well-descended nature. If you would have him apprehend shame and chastisement, do not harden him to them: inure him to heat and cold, to wind and sun, and to dangers that he ought to despise; wean him from all effeminacy and delicacy in clothes and lodging, eating and drinking; accustom him to everything, that he may not be a Sir Paris, a carpet-knight, but a sinewy, hardy, and vigorous young man. I have ever from a child to the age wherein I now am, been of this opinion, and am still constant to it. But among other things, the strict government of most of our colleges has evermore displeased me; peradventure, they might have erred less perniciously on the indulgent side. 'Tis a real house of correction of imprisoned youth. They are made debauched, by being punished before they are so. Do but come in when they are about their lesson, and you shall hear nothing but the outcries 
of boys under execution, with the thundering noise of their pedagogues drunk with fury. A very pretty way this, to tempt these tender and timorous souls to love their book, with a furious countenance, and a rod in hand! A cursed and pernicious way of proceeding! Besides what Quintilian has very well observed, that this imperious authority is often attended by very dangerous consequences, and particularly our way of chastising. How much more decent would it be to see their classes strewed with green leaves and fine flowers, than with the bloody stumps of birch and willows? Were it left to my ordering, I should paint the school with the pictures of joy and gladness; Flora and the Graces, as the philosopher Speusippus did his. Where their profit is, let them there have their pleasure too. Such viands as are proper and wholesome for children, should be sweetened with sugar, and such as are dangerous to them, embittered with gall. 'Tis marvelous to see how solicitous Plato is 
in his Laws concerning the gayety and diversion of the youth of his city, and how much and often he enlarges upon their races, sports, songs, leaps, and dances: of which, he says, that antiquity has given the ordering and patronage particularly to the gods themselves, to Apollo, Minerva, and the Muses. He insists long upon, and is very particular in giving innumerable precepts for exercises; but as to the lettered sciences, says very little, and only seems particularly to recommend poetry upon the account of music. All singularity in our manners and conditions is to be avoided as inconsistent with civil society. Who would not be astonished at so strange a constitution as that of Demophoon, steward to Alexander the Great, who sweated in the shade, and shivered in the sun? I have seen those who have run from the smell of a mellow apple with greater precipitation than from a harquebus shot, others afraid of a mouse; others vomit at the sight of cream; others ready to swoon 
at the making of a feather bed; Germanicus could neither endure the sight nor the crowing of a cock. I will not deny, but that there may, peradventure, be some occult cause and natural aversion in these cases; but, in my opinion, a man might conquer it, if he took it in time. Precept has in this wrought so effectually upon me, though not without some pains on my part, I confess, that beer excepted, my appetite accommodates itself indifferently to all sorts of diet. Young bodies are supple; one should, therefore, in that age bend and ply them to all fashions and customs: and provided a man can contain the appetite and the will within their due limits, let a young man, in God's name, be rendered fit for all nations and all companies, even to debauchery and excess, if need be; that is, where he shall do it out of complacency to the customs of the place. Let him be able to do everything, but love to do nothing but what is good. The philosophers themselves do not justify 
Callisthenes for forfeiting the favor of his master Alexander the Great, by refusing to pledge him a cup of wine. Let him laugh, play, wench, with his prince; nay, I would have him, even in his debauches, too hard for the rest of the company, and to excel his companions in ability and vigor, and that he may not give over doing it, either through defect of power or knowledge how to do it, but for want of will. "Multum interest, utrum peccare ali quis nolit, an nesciat." I thought I passed a compliment upon a lord, as free from those excesses as any man in France, by asking him before a great deal of very good company, how many times in his life he had been drunk in Germany, in the time of his being there about his majesty's affairs; which he also took as it was intended, and made answer. "Three times;" and withal, told us the whole story of his debauches. I know some, who for want of this faculty, have found a great inconvenience in negotiating with that nation. I have 
often with great admiration reflected upon the wonderful constitution of Alcibiades, who so easily could transform himself to so various fashions without any prejudice to his health; one while outdoing the Persian pomp and luxury, and another, the Lacedaemonian austerity and frugality; as reformed in Sparta, as voluptuous in Ionia.  "Omnis Aristippum decuit color, et status, et res." I would have my pupil to be such a one,      "Quem duplici panno patientia velat,    Mirabor, vitae via si conversa decebit,     Personamque feret non inconcinnus utramque."  These are my lessons, and he who puts them in practice shall reap more advantage than he who has had them read to him only, and so only knows them. If you see him, you hear him; if you hear him, you see him. God forbid, says one in Plato, that to philosophize were only to read a great many books, and to learn the arts. "Hanc amplissimam omnium artium bene vivendi disciplinam, vita magis quam literis, persequuti sunt." 
Leo, prince of the Phliasians, asking Heraclides Ponticus of what art or science he made profession; "I know," said he, "neither art nor science, but I am a philosopher." One reproaching Diogenes, that, being ignorant, he should pretend to philosophy: "I therefore," answered he, "pretend to it with so much the more reason." Hegesias entreated that he would read a certain book to him: "You are pleasant," said he; "you choose those figs that are true and natural, and not those that are painted; why do you not also choose exercises which are naturally true, rather than those written?" The lad will not so much get his lesson by heart as he will practice it: he will repeat it in his actions. We shall discover if there be prudence in his exercises, if there be sincerity and justice in his deportment, if there be grace and judgment in his speaking; if there be constancy in his sickness; if there be modesty in his mirth, temperance in his pleasures, order in his domestic economy, 
indifference in his palate, whether what he eats or drinks be flesh or fish, wine or water. "Qui disciplinam suam non ostentationem scientiae, sed legem vitae putet: quique obtemperet ipse sibi, et decretis pareat." The conduct of our lives is the true mirror of our doctrine. Zeuxidamus, to one who asked him, why the Lacedaemonians did not commit their constitutions of chivalry to writing, and deliver them to their young men to read, made answer, that it was because they would inure them to action, and not amuse them with words. With such a one, after fifteen or sixteen years' study, compare one of our college Latinists, who has thrown away so much time in nothing but learning to speak. The world is nothing but babble; and I hardly ever yet saw that man who did not rather prate too much, than speak too little. And yet half of our age is embezzled this way: we are kept four or five years to learn words only, and to tack them together into clauses; as many more to form them 
into a long discourse, divided into four or five parts; and other five years, at least, to learn succinctly to mix and interweave them after a subtle and intricate manner: let us leave all this to those who make a profession of it. Going one day to Orleans, I met in the plain on this side Clery, two pedants traveling toward Bordeaux, about fifty paces distant from one another; and a good way further behind them, I discovered a troop of horse, with a gentleman at the head of them, who was the late Monsieur le Comte de la Rochefoucauld. One of my people inquired of the foremost of these dominies, who that gentleman was that came after him; he, having not seen the train that followed after, and thinking his companion was meant, pleasantly answered: "He is not a gentleman, he is a grammarian, and I am a logician." Now we who, quite contrary, do not here pretend to breed a grammarian or a logician, but a gentleman, let us leave them to throw away their time at their own fancy: 
our business lies elsewhere. Let but our pupil be well furnished with things, words will follow but too fast; he will pull them after him if they do not voluntarily follow. I have observed some to make excuses, that they cannot express themselves, and pretend to have their fancies full of a great many very fine things, which yet, for want of eloquence, they cannot utter; 'tis a mere shift, and nothing else. Will you know what I think of it? I think they are nothing but shadows of some imperfect images and conceptions that they know not what to make of within, nor consequently bring out: they do not yet themselves understand what they would be at, and if you but observe how they haggle and stammer upon the point of parturition, you will soon conclude, that their labor is not to delivery, but about conception, and that they are but licking their formless embryo. For my part, I hold, and Socrates commands it, that whoever has in his mind a sprightly and clear imagination, he 
will express it well enough in one kind of tongue or another, and, if he be dumb, by signs     "Verbaque praevisam rem non invita sequentur." And as another as poetically says in his prose, "Quum res animum occupavere, verba ambiunt:" and this other, "Ipsoe res verbe rapiunt." He knows nothing of ablative, conjunctive, substantive, or grammar, no more than his lackey, or a fishwife of the Petit Pont; and yet these will give you a bellyful of talk, if you will hear them, and peradventure shall trip as little in their language as the best masters of art in France. He knows no rhetoric, nor how in a preface to bribe the benevolence of the courteous reader; neither does he care to know it. Indeed all this fine decoration of painting is easily effaced by the luster of a simple and blunt truth: these fine flourishes serve only to amuse the vulgar of themselves incapable of more solid and nutritive diet, as Aper very evidently demonstrates in Tacitus. The ambassadors of Samos, 
prepared with a long and elegant oration, came to Cleomenes, king of Sparta, to incite him to a war against the tyrant Polycrates; who, after he had heard their harangue with great gravity and patience, gave them this answer: "As to the exordium, I remember it not, nor consequently the middle of your speech; and for what concerns your conclusion, I will not do what you desire:" a very pretty answer this methinks, and a pack of learned orators most sweetly graveled. And what did the other man say? The Athenians were to choose one of two architects for a very great building they had designed; of these, first, a pert affected fellow, offered this service in a long premeditated discourse upon the subject of the work in hand, and by his oratory inclined the voices of the people in his favor; but the other in three words: "Oh, Athenians, what this man says, I will do." When Cicero was in the height and heat of an eloquent harangue, many were struck with admiration; but Cato 
only laughed, saying: "We have a pleasant consul." Let it go before, or come after, a good sentence or a thing well said, is always in season; if it either suit well with what went before, nor has much coherence with what follows after, it is good in itself. I am none of those who think that good rhyme makes a good poem. Let him make short long, and long short if he will, 'tis no great matter; if there be invention, and that the wit and judgment have well performed their offices, I will say, here's a good poet, but an ill rhymer.    "Emunctae naris, durus componere versus."  Let a man, says Horace, divest his work of all method and measure,     "Tempora certa modosque, et, quod prius ordine verbum est,    Posterius facias, praeponens ultima primis    Invenias etiam disjecti membra poetae,"  he will never the more lose himself for that; the very pieces will be fine by themselves. Menander's answer had this meaning, who being reproved by a friend, the time drawing on at 
which he had promised a comedy, that he had not yet fallen in hand with it: "It is made, and ready," said he, "all but the verses." Having contrived the subject, and disposed the scenes in his fancy, he took little care for the rest. Since Ronsard and Du Bellay have given reputation to our French poesy, every little dabbler, for aught I see, swells his words as high, and makes his cadences very near as harmonious as they. "Plus sonat, quam valet." For the vulgar, there were never so many poetasters as now; but though they find it no hard matter to imitate their rhyme, they yet fall infinitely short of imitating the rich descriptions of the one, and the delicate invention of the other of these masters. But what will become of our young gentleman, if he be attacked with the sophistic subtlety of some syllogism? "A Westphalia ham makes a man drink, drink quenches thirst; therefore, a Westphalia ham quenches thirst." Why, let him laugh at it; it will be more discretion to 
do so, than to go about to answer it: or let him borrow this pleasant evasion from Aristippus: "Why should I trouble myself to untie that, which, bound as it is, gives me so much trouble?" One offering at this dialectic juggling against Cleanthes, Chrysippus took him short, saying, "Reserve these baubles to play with children, and do not by such fooleries divert the serious thoughts of a man of years." If these ridiculous subtleties, "contorta et aculeata sophismata," as Cicero calls them, are designed to possess him with an untruth, they are dangerous; but if they signify no more than only to make him laugh, I do not see why a man need to be fortified against them. There are some so ridiculous, as to go a mile out of their way to hook in a fine word: "Aut qui non verba rebus aptant, sed res extrinsecus arcessunt, quibus verba conveniant." And as another says, "Qui alicujus verbi decore placentis, vocentur ad id, quod non proposuerant scribere." I for my part rather 
bring in a fine sentence by head and shoulder to fit my purpose, than divert my designs to hunt after a sentence. On the contrary words are to serve, and to follow a man's purpose; and let Gascon come in play where French will not do. I would have things so excelling, and so wholly possessing the imagination of him that hears, that he should have something else to do, than to think of words. The way of speaking that I love, is natural and plain, the same in writing as in speaking, and a sinewy and muscular way of expressing a man's self, short and pithy, not so elegant and artificial as prompt and vehement:     "Haec demum sapiet dictio, quae feriet;" rather hard than wearisome; free from affectation; irregular, incontinuous, and bold; where every piece makes up an entire body; not like a pedant, a preacher, or a pleader, but rather a soldier-like style, as Suetonius calls that of Julius Caesar; and yet I see no reason why he should call it so. I have ever been ready 
to imitate the negligent garb, which is yet observable among the young men of our time, to wear my cloak on one shoulder, my cap on one side, a stocking in disorder, which seems to express a kind of haughty disdain of these exotic ornaments, and a contempt of the artificial; but I find this negligence of much better use in the form of speaking. All affectation, particularly in the French gayety and freedom, is ungraceful in a courtier, and in a monarchy every gentleman ought to be fashioned according to the court model; for which reason, an easy and natural negligence does well. I no more like a web where the knots and seams are to be seen, than a fine figure, so delicate, that a man may tell all the bones and veins. "Quae veritati operam dat oratio, incomposita sit et simplex." "Quis accurate loquitur, nisi qui vult putide loqui?" That eloquence prejudices the subject it would advance, that wholly attracts us to itself. And as in our outward habit, 'tis a ridiculous effeminacy 
to distinguish ourselves by a particular and unusual garb or fashion; so in language, to study new phrases, and to affect words that are not of current use, proceeds from a puerile and scholastic ambition. May I be bound to speak no other language than what is spoken in the market places of Paris! Aristophanes the grammarian was quite out, when he reprehended Epicurus for his plain way of delivering himself, and the design of his oratory, which was only perspicuity of speech. The imitation of words, by its own facility, immediately disperses itself through a whole people; but the imitation of inventing and fitly applying those words, is of a slower progress. The generality of readers, for having found a like robe, very mistakenly imagine they have the same body and inside too, whereas force and sinews are never to be borrowed; the gloss and outward ornament, that is, words and elocution, may. Most of those I converse with, speak the same language I here write; but whether they 
think the same thoughts I cannot say. The Athenians, says Plato, study fullness and elegancy of speaking; the Lacedaemonians affect brevity, and those of Crete to aim more at the fecundity of conception than the fertility of speech; and these are the best. Zeno used to say, that he had two sorts of disciples, one that he called philologous, curious to learn things, and these were his favorites; the other, logophilous, that cared for nothing but words. Not that fine speaking is not a very good and commendable quality; but not so excellent and so necessary as some would make it; and I am scandalized that our whole life should be spent in nothing else. I would first understand my own language, and that of my neighbors with whom most of my business and conversation lies. No doubt but Greek and Latin are very great ornaments, and of very great use, but we buy them too dear. I will here discover one way, which has been experimented in my own person, by which they are to be had better 
cheap, and such may make use of it as will. My late father having made the most precise inquiry that any man could possibly make among men of the greatest learning and judgment, of an exact method of education, was by them cautioned of this inconvenience then in use, and made to believe, that the tedious time we applied to the learning of the tongues of them who had them for nothing, was the sole cause we could not arrive to the grandeur of soul and perfection of knowledge, of the ancient Greeks and Romans. I do not, however, believe that to be the only cause. However, the expedient my father found out for this was, that in my infancy, and before I began to speak, he committed me to the care of a German, who since died a famous physician in France, totally ignorant of our language, but very fluent, and a great critic in Latin. This man, whom he had fetched out of his own country, and whom he entertained with a very great salary for this only end, had me continually with him: to 
him there were also joined two others, of inferior learning, to attend me, and to relieve him; who all of them spoke to me in no other language but Latin. As to the rest of his family, it was an inviolable rule, that neither himself, nor my mother, man nor maid, should speak anything in my company, but such Latin words as every one had learned only to gabble with me. It is not to be imagined how great an advantage this proved to the whole family; my father and my mother by this means learned Latin enough to understand it perfectly well, and to speak it to such a degree as was sufficient for any necessary use; as also those of the servants did who were most frequently with me. In short, we Latined it at such a rate, that it overflowed to all the neighboring villages, where there yet remain, that have established themselves by custom, several Latin appellations of artisans and their tools. As for what concerns myself, I was above six years of age before I understood either French 
or Perigordin, any more than Arabic; and without art, book, grammar, or precept, whipping, or the expense of a tear, I had, by that time, learned to speak as pure Latin as my master himself, for I had no means of mixing it up with any other. If, for example, they were to give me a theme after the college fashion, they gave it to others in French, but to me they were to give it in bad Latin, to turn it into that which was good. And Nicholas Grouchy, who wrote a book "De Comitiis Romanorum," William Guerente, who wrote a comment upon Aristotle; George Buchanan, that great Scotch poet; and Mark Antony Muret (whom both France and Italy have acknowledged for the best orator of his time), my domestic tutors, have all of them often told me, that I had in my infancy, that language so very fluent and ready, that they were afraid to enter into discourse with me. And particularly Buchanan, whom I since saw attending the late Mareschal de Brissac, then told me, that he was about to write a 
treatise of education, the example of which he intended to take from mine, for he was then tutor to that Count de Brissac who afterward proved so valiant and so brave a gentleman. As to Greek, of which I have but a mere smattering, my father also designed to have it taught me by a devise, but a new one, and by way of sport; tossing our declensions to and fro, after the manner of those who, by certain games at tables and chess, learn geometry and arithmetic. For he, among other rules, had been advised to make me relish science and duty by an unforced will, and of my own voluntary motion, and to educate my soul in all liberty and delight, without any severity or constraint; which he was an observer of to such a degree, even of superstition, if I may say so, that some being of opinion that it troubles and disturbs the brains of children suddenly to wake them in the morning, and to snatch them violently and over-hastily from sleep (wherein they are much more profoundly involved than 
we), he caused me to be wakened by the sound of some musical instrument, and was never unprovided of a musician for that purpose. By this example you may judge of the rest, this alone being sufficient to recommend both the prudence and the affection of so good a father, who is not to be blamed if he did not reap fruits answerable to so exquisite a culture. Of this, two things were the cause: first, a sterile and improper soil; for, though I was of a strong and healthful constitution, and of a disposition tolerably sweet and tractable, yet I was, withal, so heavy, idle, and indisposed, that they could not rouse me from my sloth, not even to get me out to play. What I saw, I saw clearly enough, and under this heavy complexion nourished a bold imagination, and opinions above my age. I had a slow wit, that would go no faster than it was led; a tardy understanding, a languishing invention, and above all, incredible defect of memory; so that, it is no wonder, if from all these nothing 
considerable could be extracted. Secondly, like those, who, impatient of a long and steady cure, submit to all sorts of prescriptions and recipes, good man being extremely timorous of any way failing in a thing he had so wholly set his heart upon, suffered himself at last to be overruled by the common opinions; which always follow their leader as a flight of cranes, and complying with the method of the time, having no more those persons he had brought out of Italy, and who had given him the first model of education, about him, he sent me at six years of age to the College of Guienne, at that time the best and most flourishing in France. And there it was not possible to add anything to the care he had to provide me the most able tutors, with all other circumstances of education, reserving also several particular rules contrary to the college practice; but so it was, that with all these precautions it was a college still. My Latin immediately grew corrupt, of which also by 
discontinuance I have since lost all manner of use; so that this new way of education served me to no other end, than only at my first coming to prefer me to the first forms; for at thirteen years old, that I came out of the college, I had run through my whole course (as they call it), and, in truth, without any manner of advantage, that I can honestly brag of, in all this time. The first thing that gave me any taste for books, was the pleasure I took in reading the fables of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and with them I was so taken, that being but seven or eight years old, I would steal from all other diversions to read them, both by reason that this was my own natural language, the easiest book that I was acquainted with, and for the subject, the most accommodated to the capacity of my age: for, as for Lancelot of the Lake, Amadis of Gaul, Huon of Bordeaux, and such trumpery, which children are most delighted with, I had never so much as heard their names, no more than I yet 
know what they contain; so exact was the discipline wherein I was brought up. But this was enough to make me neglect the other lessons that were prescribed me; and here it was infinitely to my advantage, to have to do with an understanding tutor, who very well knew discreetly to connive at this and other truantries of the same nature; for by this means I ran through Virgil's Aeneid, and then Terence, and then Plautus, and then some Italian comedies, allured by the sweetness of the subject; whereas had he been so foolish as to have taken me off this diversion, I do really believe, I had brought nothing away from the college but a hatred of books, as almost all our young gentlemen do. But he carried himself very discreetly in that business, seeming to take no notice, and allowing me only such time as I could steal from my other regular studies, which whetted my appetite to devour those books. For the chief things my father expected from their endeavors to whom he had delivered 
me for education, were affability and good humor; and, to say the truth, my manners had no other vice but sloth and want of mettle. The fear was not that I should do ill, but that I should do nothing; nobody prognosticated that I should be wicked, but only useless; they foresaw idleness, but no malice; and I find it falls out accordingly. The complaints I hear of myself are these: "He is idle, cold in the offices of friendship and relation, and in those of the public, too particular, too disdainful." But the most injurious do not say, "Why has he taken such a thing? Why has he not paid such a one?" but, "Why does he part with nothing? Why does he not give?" And I should take it for a favor that men would expect from me no greater effects of supererogation than these. But they are unjust to exact from me what I do not owe, far more rigorously than they require from others that which they do owe. In condemning me to it, they efface the gratification of the action, and deprive me 
of the gratitude that would be my due for it; whereas the active well-doing ought to be of so much the greater value from my hands, by how much I have never been passive that way at all. I can the more freely dispose of my fortune the more it is mine, and of myself the more I am my own. Nevertheless, if I were good at setting out my own actions, I could, peradventure, very well repel these reproaches, and could give some to understand, that they are not so much offended, that I do not enough, as that I am able to do a great deal more than I do. Yet for all this heavy disposition of mine, my mind, when retired into itself, was not altogether without strong movements, solid and clear judgments about those objects it could comprehend, and could also, without any helps, digest them; but, among other things, I do really believe, it had been totally impossible to have made it to submit by violence and force. Shall I here acquaint you with one faculty of my youth? I had great assurance 
of countenance, and flexibility of voice and gesture, in applying myself to any part I undertook to act: for before-    "Alter ab undecimo tum me vix ceperat annus," I played the chief parts in the Latin tragedies of Buchanan, Guerente, and Muret, that were presented in our college of Guienne with great dignity; now Andreas Goveanus, our principal, as in all other parts of his charge, was, without comparison, the best of that employment in France; and I was looked upon as one of the best actors. 'Tis an exercise that I do not disapprove in young people of condition; and I have since seen our princes, after the example of some of the ancients, in person handsomely and commendably perform these exercises; it was even allowed to persons of quality to make a profession of it in Greece. "Aristoni tragico actori rem aperit: huic et genus et fortuna houesta erant: nec ars, quia nihil tale apud Graecos pudori est, ea deformabat." Nay, I have always taxed those with impertinence who 
condemn these entertainments, and with injustice those who refuse to admit such comedians as are worth seeing into our good towns, and grudge the people that public diversion. Well-governed corporations take care to assemble their citizens, not only to the solemn duties of devotion, but also to sports and spectacles. They find society and friendship augmented by it; and, besides, can there possibly be allowed a more orderly and regular diversion than what is performed in the sight of every one, and, very often, in the presence of the supreme magistrate himself? And I, for my part, should think it reasonable, that the prince should sometimes gratify his people at his own expense, out of paternal goodness and affection; and that in populous cities there should be theaters erected for such entertainments, if but to divert them from worse and private actions. To return to my subject, there is nothing like alluring the appetite and affections; otherwise you make nothing but so many 
asses laden with books; by dint of the lash, you give them their pocketful learning to keep; whereas, to do well, you should not only lodge it with them, but make them espouse it.    
180 948
     In the second century of the Christian Aera, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most
civilized portion of mankind.  The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. 
The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces.  Their peaceful
inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury.  The image of a free constitution was preserved with
decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the
executive powers of government.  During a happy period of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by
the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines.  It is the design of this, and of the two succeeding
chapters, to describe the prosperous condition of their empire; and after wards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce
the most important circumstances of its decline and fall; a revolution which will ever be remembered, and is still felt by
the nations of the earth.

     The principal conquests of the Romans were achieved under the republic; and the emperors, for the most part, were satisfied
with preserving those dominions which had been acquired by the policy of the senate, the active emulations of the consuls, and
the martial enthusiasm of the people.  The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was
reserved for Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation
into the public councils.  Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for him to discover that Rome, in her
present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms; and that, in the prosecution of remote
wars, the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the possession more precarious, and less
beneficial.  The experience of Augustus added weight to these salutary reflections, and effectually convinced him that, by the
prudent vigor of his counsels, it would be easy to secure every concession which the safety or the dignity of Rome might require
from the most formidable barbarians.  Instead of exposing his person and his legions to the arrows of the Parthians, he
obtained, by an honorable treaty, the restitution of the standards and prisoners which had been taken in the defeat of
Crassus. ^1

[Footnote 1: Dion Cassius, (l. liv. p. 736,) with the annotations of Reimar, who has collected all that Roman vanity has left upon
the subject.  The marble of Ancyra, on which Augustus recorded his own exploits, asserted that he compelled the Parthians to
restore the ensigns of Crassus.] 

     His generals, in the early part of his reign, attempted the reduction of Ethiopia and Arabia Felix.  They marched near a
thousand miles to the south of the tropic; but the heat of the climate soon repelled the invaders, and protected the un-warlike
natives of those sequestered regions. ^2 The northern countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expense and labor of conquest. 
The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from
freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of
despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune. ^3 On the death of that emperor, his
testament was publicly read in the senate.  He bequeathed, as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the
empire within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarks and boundaries: on the west, the Atlantic
Ocean; the Rhine and Danube on the north; the Euphrates on the east; and towards the south, the sandy deserts of Arabia and
Africa. ^4

[Footnote 2: Strabo, (l. xvi. p. 780,) Pliny the elder, (Hist. Natur. l. vi. c. 32, 35, [28, 29,] and Dion Cassius, (l. liii. p.
723, and l. liv. p. 734,) have left us very curious details concerning these wars.  The Romans made themselves masters of
Mariaba, or Merab, a city of Arabia Felix, well known to the Orientals.  (See Abulfeda and the Nubian geography, p. 52) They
were arrived within three days' journey of the spice country, the rich object of their invasion.

     Note: It is the city of Merab that the Arabs say was the residence of Belkis, queen of Saba, who desired to see Solomon. 
A dam, by which the waters collected in its neighborhood were kept back, having been swept away, the sudden inundation
destroyed this city, of which, nevertheless, vestiges remain.  It bordered on a country called Adramout, where a particular
aromatic plant grows: it is for this reason that we real in the history of the Roman expedition, that they were arrived within
three days' journey of the spice country. - G.  Compare Malte-Brun, Geogr. Eng. trans. vol. ii. p. 215.  The period of
this flood has been copiously discussed by Reiske, (Program. de vetusta Epocha Arabum, ruptura cataractae Merabensis.) Add.
Johannsen, Hist. Yemanae, p. 282.  Bonn, 1828; and see Gibbon, note 16. to Chap. L. - M. 

     Note: Two, according to Strabo.  The detailed account of Strabo makes the invaders fail before Marsuabae: this cannot be
the same place as Mariaba. Ukert observes, that Aelius Gallus would not have failed for want of water before Mariaba.  (See M.
Guizot's note above.) "Either, therefore, they were different places, or Strabo is mistaken." (Ukert, Geographic der Griechen
und Romer, vol. i. p. 181.) Strabo, indeed, mentions Mariaba distinct from Marsuabae.  Gibbon has followed Pliny in reckoning
Mariaba among the conquests of Gallus.  There can be little doubt that he is wrong, as Gallus did not approach the capital of
Sabaea.  Compare the note of the Oxford editor of Strabo. - M.]  [Footnote 3: By the slaughter of Varus and his three legions. 
See the first book of the Annals of Tacitus.  Sueton. in August. c. 23, and Velleius Paterculus, l. ii. c. 117, &c.  Augustus did
not receive the melancholy news with all the temper and firmness that might have been expected from his character.]

[Footnote 4: Tacit. Annal. l. ii.  Dion Cassius, l. lvi. p. 833, and the speech of Augustus himself, in Julian's Caesars.  It
receives great light from the learned notes of his French translator, M. Spanheim.] 

     Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate system recommended by the wisdom of Augustus, was adopted by the fears
and vices of his immediate successors.  Engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, or in the exercise of tyranny, the first Caesars seldom
showed themselves to the armies, or to the provinces; nor were they disposed to suffer, that those triumphs which their
indolence neglected, should be usurped by the conduct and valor of their lieutenants.  The military fame of a subject was
considered as an insolent invasion of the Imperial prerogative; and it became the duty, as well as interest, of every Roman
general, to guard the frontiers intrusted to his care, without aspiring to conquests which might have proved no less fatal to
himself than to the vanquished barbarians. ^5

[Footnote 5: Germanicus, Suetonius Paulinus, and Agricola were checked and recalled in the course of their victories.  Corbulo
was put to death. Military merit, as it is admirably expressed by Tacitus, was, in the strictest sense of the word, imperatoria
virtus.]

     The only accession which the Roman empire received, during the first century of the Christian Aera, was the province of
Britain.  In this single instance, the successors of Caesar and Augustus were persuaded to follow the example of the former,
rather than the precept of the latter.  The proximity of its situation to the coast of Gaul seemed to invite their arms; the
pleasing though doubtful intelligence of a pearl fishery, attracted their avarice; ^6 and as Britain was viewed in the
light of a distinct and insulated world, the conquest scarcely formed any exception to the general system of continental
measures.  After a war of about forty years, undertaken by the most stupid, ^7 maintained by the most dissolute, and terminated
by the most timid of all the emperors, the far greater part of the island submitted to the Roman yoke. ^8 The various tribes of
Britain possessed valor without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union.  They took up arms with savage
fierceness; they laid them down, or turned them against each other, with wild inconsistency; and while they fought singly,
they were successively subdued.  Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the despair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticism of
the Druids, could avert the slavery of their country, or resist the steady progress of the Imperial generals, who maintained the
national glory, when the throne was disgraced by the weakest, or the most vicious of mankind.  At the very time when Domitian,
confined to his palace, felt the terrors which he inspired, his legions, under the command of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the
collected force of the Caledonians, at the foot of the Grampian Hills; and his fleets, venturing to explore an unknown and
dangerous navigation, displayed the Roman arms round every part of the island.  The conquest of Britain was considered as already
achieved; and it was the design of Agricola to complete and insure his success, by the easy reduction of Ireland, for which,
in his opinion, one legion and a few auxiliaries were sufficient. ^9 The western isle might be improved into a valuable possession,
and the Britons would wear their chains with the less reluctance, if the prospect and example of freedom were on every side removed
from before their eyes.

[Footnote 6: Caesar himself conceals that ignoble motive; but it is mentioned by Suetonius, c. 47.  The British pearls proved,
however, of little value, on account of their dark and livid color.  Tacitus observes, with reason, (in Agricola, c. 12,) that
it was an inherent defect.  "Ego facilius crediderim, naturam margaritis deesse quam nobis avaritiam."]

[Footnote 7: Claudius, Nero, and Domitian.  A hope is expressed by Pomponius Mela, l. iii. c. 6, (he wrote under Claudius,) that,
by the success of the Roman arms, the island and its savage inhabitants would soon be better known. It is amusing enough to
peruse such passages in the midst of London.]  [Footnote 8: See the admirable abridgment given by Tacitus, in
the life of Agricola, and copiously, though perhaps not completely, illustrated by our own antiquarians, Camden and
Horsley.]

[Footnote 9: The Irish writers, jealous of their national honor, are extremely provoked on this occasion, both with Tacitus and
with Agricola.] 

     But the superior merit of Agricola soon occasioned his removal from the government of Britain; and forever disappointed
this rational, though extensive scheme of conquest.  Before his departure, the prudent general had provided for security as well
as for dominion.  He had observed, that the island is almost divided into two unequal parts by the opposite gulfs, or, as they
are now called, the Friths of Scotland.  Across the narrow interval of about forty miles, he had drawn a line of military
stations, which was afterwards fortified, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, by a turf rampart, erected on foundations of
stone. ^10 This wall of Antoninus, at a small distance beyond the modern cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, was fixed as the limit of
the Roman province.  The native Caledonians preserved, in the northern extremity of the island, their wild independence, for
which they were not less indebted to their poverty than to their valor.  Their incursions were frequently repelled and chastised;
but their country was never subdued. ^11 The masters of the fairest and most wealthy climates of the globe turned with
contempt from gloomy hills, assailed by the winter tempest, from lakes concealed in a blue mist, and from cold and lonely heaths,
over which the deer of the forest were chased by a troop of naked barbarians. ^12

[Footnote 10: See Horsley's Britannia Romana, l. i. c. 10.       Note: Agricola fortified the line from Dumbarton to
Edinburgh, consequently within Scotland.  The emperor Hadrian, during his residence in Britain, about the year 121, caused a
rampart of earth to be raised between Newcastle and Carlisle.  Antoninus Pius, having gained new victories over the Caledonians,
by the ability of his general, Lollius, Urbicus, caused a new rampart of earth to be constructed between Edinburgh and
Dumbarton.  Lastly, Septimius Severus caused a wall of stone to be built parallel to the rampart of Hadrian, and on the same
locality.  See John Warburton's Vallum Romanum, or the History and Antiquities of the Roman Wall.  London, 1754, 4to. - W. See
likewise a good note on the Roman wall in Lingard's History of England, vol. i. p. 40, 4to edit - M.]

[Footnote 11: The poet Buchanan celebrates with elegance and spirit (see his Sylvae, v.) the unviolated independence of his
native country.  But, if the single testimony of Richard of Cirencester was sufficient to create a Roman province of
Vespasiana to the north of the wall, that independence would be reduced within very narrow limits.]

[Footnote 12: See Appian (in Prooem.) and the uniform imagery of Ossian's Poems, which, according to every hypothesis, were
composed by a native Caledonian.]

     Such was the state of the Roman frontiers, and such the maxims of Imperial policy, from the death of Augustus to the
accession of Trajan.  That virtuous and active prince had received the education of a soldier, and possessed the talents of
a general. ^13 The peaceful system of his predecessors was interrupted by scenes of war and conquest; and the legions, after
a long interval, beheld a military emperor at their head.  The first exploits of Trajan were against the Dacians, the most
warlike of men, who dwelt beyond the Danube, and who, during the reign of Domitian, had insulted, with impunity, the Majesty of
Rome. ^14 To the strength and fierceness of barbarians they added a contempt for life, which was derived from a warm persuasion of
the immortality and transmigration of the soul. ^15 Decebalus, the Dacian king, approved himself a rival not unworthy of Trajan;
nor did he despair of his own and the public fortune, till, by the confession of his enemies, he had exhausted every resource
both of valor and policy. ^16 This memorable war, with a very short suspension of hostilities, lasted five years; and as the
emperor could exert, without control, the whole force of the state, it was terminated by an absolute submission of the
barbarians. ^17 The new province of Dacia, which formed a second exception to the precept of Augustus, was about thirteen hundred
miles in circumference.  Its natural boundaries were the Niester, the Teyss or Tibiscus, the Lower Danube, and the Euxine Sea.  The
vestiges of a military road may still be traced from the banks of the Danube to the neighborhood of Bender, a place famous in
modern history, and the actual frontier of the Turkish and Russian empires. ^18 

[Footnote 13: See Pliny's Panegyric, which seems founded on facts.] 

[Footnote 14: Dion Cassius, l. lxvii.]

[Footnote 15: Herodotus, l. iv. c. 94.  Julian in the Caesars, with Spanheims observations.]

[Footnote 16: Plin. Epist. viii. 9.]

[Footnote 17: Dion Cassius, l. lxviii. p. 1123, 1131.  Julian in Caesaribus Eutropius, viii. 2, 6.  Aurelius Victor in Epitome.] 
[Footnote 18: See a Memoir of M. d'Anville, on the Province of Dacia, in the Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 444 -
468.]

     Trajan was ambitious of fame; and as long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than
on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.  The praises of
Alexander, transmitted by a succession of poets and historians, had kindled a dangerous emulation in the mind of Trajan. Like
him, the Roman emperor undertook an expedition against the nations of the East; but he lamented with a sigh, that his
advanced age scarcely left him any hopes of equalling the renown of the son of Philip. ^19 Yet the success of Trajan, however
transient, was rapid and specious.  The degenerate Parthians, broken by intestine discord, fled before his arms.  He descended
the River Tigris in triumph, from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian Gulf.  He enjoyed the honor of being the first, as he was
the last, of the Roman generals, who ever navigated that remote sea.  His fleets ravaged the coast of Arabia; and Trajan vainly
flattered himself that he was approaching towards the confines of India. ^20 Every day the astonished senate received the
intelligence of new names and new nations, that acknowledged his sway. They were informed that the kings of Bosphorus, Colchos,
Iberia, Albania, Osrhoene, and even the Parthian monarch himself, had accepted their diadems from the hands of the emperor; that
the independent tribes of the Median and Carduchian hills had implored his protection; and that the rich countries of Armenia,
Mesopotamia, and Assyria, were reduced into the state of provinces. ^21 But the death of Trajan soon clouded the splendid
prospect; and it was justly to be dreaded, that so many distant nations would throw off the unaccustomed yoke, when they were no
longer restrained by the powerful hand which had imposed it.  [Footnote 19: Trajan's sentiments are represented in a very just
and lively manner in the Caesars of Julian.]

[Footnote 20: Eutropius and Sextus Rufus have endeavored to perpetuate the illusion.  See a very sensible dissertation of M.
Freret in the Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxi. p. 55.]  [Footnote 21: Dion Cassius, l. lxviii.; and the Abbreviators.]  

Part II.

     It was an ancient tradition, that when the Capitol was founded by one of the Roman kings, the god Terminus (who presided
over boundaries, and was represented, according to the fashion of that age, by a large stone) alone, among all the inferior
deities, refused to yield his place to Jupiter himself.  A favorable inference was drawn from his obstinacy, which was
interpreted by the augurs as a sure presage that the boundaries of the Roman power would never recede. ^22 During many ages, the
prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own accomplishment.  But though Terminus had resisted the Majesty of
Jupiter, he submitted to the authority of the emperor Hadrian. ^23 The resignation of all the eastern conquests of Trajan was
the first measure of his reign.  He restored to the Parthians the election of an independent sovereign; withdrew the Roman
garrisons from the provinces of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria; and, in compliance with the precept of Augustus, once
more established the Euphrates as the frontier of the empire. ^24 Censure, which arraigns the public actions and the private
motives of princes, has ascribed to envy, a conduct which might be attributed to the prudence and moderation of Hadrian.  The
various character of that emperor, capable, by turns, of the meanest and the most generous sentiments, may afford some color
to the suspicion.  It was, however, scarcely in his power to place the superiority of his predecessor in a more conspicuous
light, than by thus confessing himself unequal to the task of defending the conquests of Trajan.

[Footnote 22: Ovid. Fast. l. ii. ver. 667.  See Livy, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, under the reign of Tarquin.]

[Footnote 23: St. Augustin is highly delighted with the proof of the weakness of Terminus, and the vanity of the Augurs.  See De
Civitate Dei, iv. 29. 

     Note *: The turn of Gibbon's sentence is Augustin's: "Plus Hadrianum regem bominum, quam regem Deorum timuisse videatur." -M]

[Footnote 24: See the Augustan History, p. 5, Jerome's Chronicle, and all the Epitomizers.  It is somewhat surprising, that this
memorable event should be omitted by Dion, or rather by Xiphilin.]

     The martial and ambitious of spirit Trajan formed a very singular contrast with the moderation of his successor.  The
restless activity of Hadrian was not less remarkable when compared with the gentle repose of Antoninus Pius.  The life of
the former was almost a perpetual journey; and as he possessed the various talents of the soldier, the statesman, and the
scholar, he gratified his curiosity in the discharge of his duty.  Careless of the difference of seasons and of climates, he marched
on foot, and bare- headed, over the snows of Caledonia, and the sultry plains of the Upper Egypt; nor was there a province of the
empire which, in the course of his reign, was not honored with the presence of the monarch. ^25 But the tranquil life of
Antoninus Pius was spent in the bosom of Italy, and, during the twenty-three years that he directed the public administration,
the longest journeys of that amiable prince extended no farther than from his palace in Rome to the retirement of his Lanuvian
villa. ^26

[Footnote 25: Dion, l. lxix. p. 1158.  Hist. August. p. 5, 8.  If all our historians were lost, medals, inscriptions, and other
monuments, would be sufficient to record the travels of Hadrian.      Note: The journeys of Hadrian are traced in a note on
Solvet's translation of Hegewisch, Essai sur l'Epoque de Histoire Romaine la plus heureuse pour Genre Humain Paris, 1834, p. 123. -M.]

[Footnote 26: See the Augustan History and the Epitomes.]

     Notwithstanding this difference in their personal conduct, the general system of Augustus was equally adopted and uniformly
pursued by Hadrian and by the two Antonines.  They persisted in the design of maintaining the dignity of the empire, without
attempting to enlarge its limits.  By every honorable expedient they invited the friendship of the barbarians; and endeavored to
convince mankind that the Roman power, raised above the temptation of conquest, was actuated only by the love of order
and justice. During a long period of forty-three years, their virtuous labors were crowned with success; and if we except a few
slight hostilities, that served to exercise the legions of the frontier, the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius offer the fair
prospect of universal peace. ^27 The Roman name was revered among the most remote nations of the earth.  The fiercest barbarians
frequently submitted their differences to the arbitration of the emperor; and we are informed by a contemporary historian that he
had seen ambassadors who were refused the honor which they came to solicit of being admitted into the rank of subjects. ^28 
[Footnote 27: We must, however, remember, that in the time of Hadrian, a rebellion of the Jews raged with religious fury,
though only in a single province.  Pausanias (l. viii. c. 43) mentions two necessary and successful wars, conducted by the
generals of Pius: 1st.  Against the wandering Moors, who were driven into the solitudes of Atlas.  2d.  Against the Brigantes
of Britain, who had invaded the Roman province.  Both these wars (with several other hostilities) are mentioned in the Augustan
History, p. 19.] 

[Footnote 28: Appian of Alexandria, in the preface to his History of the Roman Wars.]

     The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors.  They preserved peace by a constant
preparation for war; and while justice regulated their conduct, they announced to the nations on their confines, that they were
as little disposed to endure, as to offer an injury. The military strength, which it had been sufficient for Hadrian and the elder
Antoninus to display, was exerted against the Parthians and the Germans by the emperor Marcus.  The hostilities of the barbarians
provoked the resentment of that philosophic monarch, and, in the prosecution of a just defence, Marcus and his generals obtained
many signal victories, both on the Euphrates and on the Danube. ^29 The military establishment of the Roman empire, which thus
assured either its tranquillity or success, will now become the proper and important object of our attention.

[Footnote 29: Dion, l. lxxi.  Hist. August. in Marco.  The Parthian victories gave birth to a crowd of contemptible
historians, whose memory has been rescued from oblivion and exposed to ridicule, in a very lively piece of criticism of
Lucian.] 

     In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms was reserved for those ranks of citizens who had a country to love, a
property to defend, and some share in enacting those laws, which it was their interest as well as duty to maintain.  But in
proportion as the public freedom was lost in extent of conquest, war was gradually improved into an art, and degraded into a
trade. ^30 The legions themselves, even at the time when they were recruited in the most distant provinces, were supposed to
consist of Roman citizens. That distinction was generally considered, either as a legal qualification or as a proper
recompense for the soldier; but a more serious regard was paid to the essential merit of age, strength, and military stature. ^31
In all levies, a just preference was given to the climates of the North over those of the South: the race of men born to the
exercise of arms was sought for in the country rather than in cities; and it was very reasonably presumed, that the hardy
occupations of smiths, carpenters, and huntsmen, would supply more vigor and resolution than the sedentary trades which are
employed in the service of luxury. ^32 After every qualification of property had been laid aside, the armies of the Roman emperors
were still commanded, for the most part, by officers of liberal birth and education; but the common soldiers, like the mercenary
troops of modern Europe, were drawn from the meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind.

[Footnote 30: The poorest rank of soldiers possessed above forty pounds sterling, (Dionys. Halicarn. iv. 17,) a very high
qualification at a time when money was so scarce, that an ounce of silver was equivalent to seventy pounds weight of brass.  The
populace, excluded by the ancient constitution, were indiscriminately admitted by Marius.  See Sallust. de Bell. 
Jugurth. c. 91. 

     Note: On the uncertainty of all these estimates, and the difficulty of fixing the relative value of brass and silver,
compare Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 473, &c.  Eng. trans. p. 452.  According to Niebuhr, the relative disproportion in value,
between the two metals, arose, in a great degree from the abundance of brass or copper. - M.  Compare also Dureau 'de la
Malle Economie Politique des Romains especially L. l. c. ix. - M. 1845.] 

[Footnote 31: Caesar formed his legion Alauda of Gauls and strangers; but it was during the license of civil war; and after
the victory, he gave them the freedom of the city for their reward.]

[Footnote 32: See Vegetius, de Re Militari, l. i. c. 2 - 7.
]  
     That public virtue, which among the ancients was denominated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own interest in
the preservation and prosperity of the free government of which we are members.  Such a sentiment, which had rendered the legions
of the republic almost invincible, could make but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a despotic prince; and it
became necessary to supply that defect by other motives, of a different, but not less forcible nature - honor and religion. 
The peasant, or mechanic, imbibed the useful prejudice that he was advanced to the more dignified profession of arms, in which
his rank and reputation would depend on his own valor; and that, although the prowess of a private soldier must often escape the
notice of fame, his own behavior might sometimes confer glory or disgrace on the company, the legion, or even the army, to whose
honors he was associated.  On his first entrance into the service, an oath was administered to him with every circumstance
of solemnity.  He promised never to desert his standard, to submit his own will to the commands of his leaders, and to
sacrifice his life for the safety of the emperor and the empire. ^33 The attachment of the Roman troops to their standards was
inspired by the united influence of religion and of honor.  The golden eagle, which glittered in the front of the legion, was the
object of their fondest devotion; nor was it esteemed less impious than it was ignominious, to abandon that sacred ensign in
the hour of danger. ^34 These motives, which derived their strength from the imagination, were enforced by fears and hopes
of a more substantial kind.  Regular pay, occasional donatives, and a stated recompense, after the appointed time of service,
alleviated the hardships of the military life, ^35 whilst, on the other hand, it was impossible for cowardice or disobedience to
escape the severest punishment.  The centurions were authorized to chastise with blows, the generals had a right to punish with
death; and it was an inflexible maxim of Roman discipline, that a good soldier should dread his officers far more than the enemy. 
From such laudable arts did the valor of the Imperial troops receive a degree of firmness and docility unattainable by the
impetuous and irregular passions of barbarians.

[Footnote 33: The oath of service and fidelity to the emperor was annually renewed by the troops on the first of January.]

[Footnote 34: Tacitus calls the Roman eagles, Bellorum Deos. They were placed in a chapel in the camp, and with the other
deities received the religious worship of the troops.   Note: See also Dio.  Cass. xl. c. 18. - M.]

[Footnote 35: See Gronovius de Pecunia vetere, l. iii. p. 120, &c.  The emperor Domitian raised the annual stipend of the
legionaries to twelve pieces of gold, which, in his time, was equivalent to about ten of our guineas.  This pay, somewhat
higher than our own, had been, and was afterwards, gradually increased, according to the progress of wealth and military
government.  After twenty years' service, the veteran received three thousand denarii, (about one hundred pounds sterling,) or a
proportionable allowance of land.  The pay and advantages of the guards were, in general, about double those of the legions.] 
     And yet so sensible were the Romans of the imperfection of valor without skill and practice, that, in their language, the
name of an army was borrowed from the word which signified exercise. ^36 Military exercises were the important and
unremitted object of their discipline.  The recruits and young soldiers were constantly trained, both in the morning and in the
evening, nor was age or knowledge allowed to excuse the veterans from the daily repetition of what they had completely learnt. 
Large sheds were erected in the winter- quarters of the troops, that their useful labors might not receive any interruption from
the most tempestuous weather; and it was carefully observed, that the arms destined to this imitation of war, should be of double
the weight which was required in real action. ^37 It is not the purpose of this work to enter into any minute description of the
Roman exercises.  We shall only remark, that they comprehended whatever could add strength to the body, activity to the limbs,
or grace to the motions.  The soldiers were diligently instructed to march, to run, to leap, to swim, to carry heavy burdens, to
handle every species of arms that was used either for offence or for defence, either in distant engagement or in a closer onset;
to form a variety of evolutions; and to move to the sound of flutes in the Pyrrhic or martial dance. ^38 In the midst of
peace, the Roman troops familiarized themselves with the practice of war; and it is prettily remarked by an ancient historian who
had fought against them, that the effusion of blood was the only circumstance which distinguished a field of battle from a field
of exercise. ^39 It was the policy of the ablest generals, and even of the emperors themselves, to encourage these military
studies by their presence and example; and we are informed that Hadrian, as well as Trajan, frequently condescended to instruct
the unexperienced soldiers, to reward the diligent, and sometimes to dispute with them the prize of superior strength or dexterity.
^40 Under the reigns of those princes, the science of tactics was cultivated with success; and as long as the empire retained any
vigor, their military instructions were respected as the most perfect model of Roman discipline.

[Footnote 36: Exercitus ab exercitando, Varro de Lingua Latina, l. iv. Cicero in Tusculan. l. ii. 37.  [15.] There is room for a
very interesting work, which should lay open the connection between the languages and manners of nations.
 
    Note I am not aware of the existence, at present, of such a work; but the profound observations of the late William von
Humboldt, in the introduction to his posthumously published Essay on the Language of the Island of Java, (uber die Kawi-sprache,
Berlin, 1836,) may cause regret that this task was not completed by that accomplished and universal scholar. - M.] 

[Footnote 37: Vegatius, l. ii. and the rest of his first book.]   [Footnote 38: The Pyrrhic dance is extremely well illustrated by
M. le Beau, in the Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxxv. p. 262, &c.  That learned academician, in a series of memoirs, has
collected all the passages of the ancients that relate to the Roman legion.]

[Footnote 39: Joseph. de Bell.  Judaico, l. iii. c. 5.  We are indebted to this Jew for some very curious details of Roman discipline.] 

[Footnote 40: Plin. Panegyr. c. 13.  Life of Hadrian, in the Augustan History.]

     Nine centuries of war had gradually introduced into the service many alterations and improvements.  The legions, as they
are described by Polybius, ^41 in the time of the Punic wars, differed very materially from those which achieved the victories
of Caesar, or defended the monarchy of Hadrian and the Antonines.  The constitution of the Imperial legion may be described in a few
words. ^42 The heavy-armed infantry, which composed its principal strength, ^43 was divided into ten cohorts, and fifty-five
companies, under the orders of a correspondent number of tribunes and centurions.  The first cohort, which always claimed the post
of honor and the custody of the eagle, was formed of eleven hundred and five soldiers, the most approved for valor and
fidelity.  The remaining nine cohorts consisted each of five hundred and fifty-five; and the whole body of legionary infantry
amounted to six thousand one hundred men.  Their arms were uniform, and admirably adapted to the nature of their service: an
open helmet, with a lofty crest; a breastplate, or coat of mail; greaves on their legs, and an ample buckler on their left arm. 
The buckler was of an oblong and concave figure, four feet in length, and two and a half in breadth, framed of a light wood,
covered with a bull's hide, and strongly guarded with plates of brass. Besides a lighter spear, the legionary soldier grasped in
his right hand the formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin, whose utmost length was about six feet, and which was terminated by a
massy triangular point of steel of eighteen inches. ^44 This instrument was indeed much inferior to our modern fire-arms;
since it was exhausted by a single discharge, at the distance of only ten or twelve paces.  Yet when it was launched by a firm and
skilful hand, there was not any cavalry that durst venture within its reach, nor any shield or corselet that could sustain the
impetuosity of its weight.  As soon as the Roman had darted his pilum, he drew his sword, and rushed forwards to close with the
enemy.  His sword was a short well-tempered Spanish blade, that carried a double edge, and was alike suited to the purpose of
striking or of pushing; but the soldier was always instructed to prefer the latter use of his weapon, as his own body remained
less exposed, whilst he inflicted a more dangerous wound on his adversary. ^45 The legion was usually drawn up eight deep; and
the regular distance of three feet was left between the files as well as ranks. ^46 A body of troops, habituated to preserve this
open order, in a long front and a rapid charge, found themselves prepared to execute every disposition which the circumstances of
war, or the skill of their leader, might suggest.  The soldier possessed a free space for his arms and motions, and sufficient
intervals were allowed, through which seasonable reenforcements might be introduced to the relief of the exhausted combatants.
^47 The tactics of the Greeks and Macedonians were formed on very different principles.  The strength of the phalanx depended on
sixteen ranks of long pikes, wedged together in the closest array. ^48 But it was soon discovered by reflection, as well as
by the event, that the strength of the phalanx was unable to contend with the activity of the legion. ^49

[Footnote 41: See an admirable digression on the Roman discipline, in the sixth book of his History.]

[Footnote 42: Vegetius de Re Militari, l. ii. c. 4, &c.  

Considerable part of his very perplexed abridgment was taken from the regulations of Trajan and Hadrian; and the legion, as he
describes it, cannot suit any other age of the Roman empire.]  [Footnote 43: Vegetius de Re Militari, l. ii. c. 1.  In the purer
age of Caesar and Cicero, the word miles was almost confined to the infantry.  Under the lower empire, and the times of chivalry,
it was appropriated almost as exclusively to the men at arms, who fought on horseback.]

[Footnote 44: In the time of Polybius and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, (l. v. c. 45,) the steel point of the pilum seems
to have been much longer.  In the time of Vegetius, it was reduced to a foot, or even nine inches.  I have chosen a medium.] 
[Footnote 45: For the legionary arms, see Lipsius de Militia Romana, l. iii. c. 2 - 7.]

[Footnote 46: See the beautiful comparison of Virgil, Georgic ii. v. 279.] 

[Footnote 47: M. Guichard, Memoires Militaires, tom. i. c. 4, and Nouveaux Memoires, tom. i. p. 293 - 311, has treated the subject
like a scholar and an officer.]


[Footnote 48: See Arrian's Tactics.  With the true partiality of a Greek, Arrian rather chose to describe the phalanx, of which he
had read, than the legions which he had commanded.] [Footnote 49: Polyb. l. xvii.  (xviii. 9.)]

     The cavalry, without which the force of the legion would have remained imperfect, was divided into ten troops or
squadrons; the first, as the companion of the first cohort, consisted of a hundred and thirty-two men; whilst each of the
other nine amounted only to sixty-six.  The entire establishment formed a regiment, if we may use the modern expression, of seven
hundred and twenty-six horse, naturally connected with its respective legion, but occasionally separated to act in the line,
and to compose a part of the wings of the army. ^50 The cavalry of the emperors was no longer composed, like that of the ancient
republic, of the noblest youths of Rome and Italy, who, by performing their military service on horseback, prepared
themselves for the offices of senator and consul; and solicited, by deeds of valor, the future suffrages of their countrymen. ^51
Since the alteration of manners and government, the most wealthy of the equestrian order were engaged in the administration of
justice, and of the revenue; ^52 and whenever they embraced the profession of arms, they were immediately intrusted with a troop
of horse, or a cohort of foot. ^53 Trajan and Hadrian formed their cavalry from the same provinces, and the same class of
their subjects, which recruited the ranks of the legion.  The horses were bred, for the most part, in Spain or Cappadocia.  The
Roman troopers despised the complete armor with which the cavalry of the East was encumbered.  Their more useful arms consisted in
a helmet, an oblong shield, light boots, and a coat of mail.  A javelin, and a long broad sword, were their principal weapons of
offence. The use of lances and of iron maces they seem to have borrowed from the barbarians. ^54

[Footnote 50: Veget. de Re Militari, l. ii. c. 6.  His positive testimony, which might be supported by circumstantial evidence,
ought surely to silence those critics who refuse the Imperial legion its proper body of cavalry. 
     Note: See also Joseph.  B. J. iii. vi. 2. - M.]

[Footnote 51: See Livy almost throughout, particularly xlii. 61.] 

[Footnote 52: Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 2.  The true sense of that very curious passage was first discovered and illustrated by
M. de Beaufort, Republique Romaine, l. ii. c. 2.]

[Footnote 53: As in the instance of Horace and Agricola.  This appears to have been a defect in the Roman discipline; which
Hadrian endeavored to remedy by ascertaining the legal age of a tribune.

     Note: These details are not altogether accurate.  Although, in the latter days of the republic, and under the first emperors,
the young Roman nobles obtained the command of a squadron or a cohort with greater facility than in the former times, they never
obtained it without passing through a tolerably long military service.  Usually they served first in the praetorian cohort,
which was intrusted with the guard of the general: they were received into the companionship (contubernium) of some superior
officer, and were there formed for duty.  Thus Julius Caesar, though sprung from a great family, served first as contubernalis
under the praetor, M. Thermus, and later under Servilius the Isaurian.  (Suet. Jul. 2, 5.  Plut. in Par. p. 516.  Ed. Froben.)
The example of Horace, which Gibbon adduces to prove that young knights were made tribunes immediately on entering the service,
proves nothing.  In the first place, Horace was not a knight; he was the son of a freedman of Venusia, in Apulia, who exercised
the humble office of coactor exauctionum, (collector of payments at auctions.) (Sat. i. vi. 45, or 86.) Moreover, when the poet
was made tribune, Brutus, whose army was nearly entirely composed of Orientals, gave this title to all the Romans of consideration
who joined him.  The emperors were still less difficult in their choice; the number of tribunes was augmented; the title and
honors were conferred on persons whom they wished to attack to the court.  Augustus conferred on the sons of senators, sometimes
the tribunate, sometimes the command of a squadron.  Claudius gave to the knights who entered into the service, first the
command of a cohort of auxiliaries, later that of a squadron, and at length, for the first time, the tribunate.  (Suet in Claud.
with the notes of Ernesti.) The abuses that arose caused by the edict of Hadrian, which fixed the age at which that honor could
be attained.  (Spart. in Had. &c.) This edict was subsequently obeyed; for the emperor Valerian, in a letter addressed to
Mulvius Gallinnus, praetorian praefect, excuses himself for having violated it in favor of the young Probus afterwards
emperor, on whom he had conferred the tribunate at an earlier age on account of his rare talents.  (Vopisc. in Prob. iv.) - W. and
G. Agricola, though already invested with the title of tribune, was contubernalis in Britain with Suetonius Paulinus.  Tac. Agr.
v. - M.]

[Footnote 54: See Arrian's Tactics.]

     The safety and honor of the empire was principally intrusted to the legions, but the policy of Rome condescended to adopt
every useful instrument of war.  Considerable levies were regularly made among the provincials, who had not yet deserved
the honorable distinction of Romans.  Many dependent princes and communities, dispersed round the frontiers, were permitted, for a
while, to hold their freedom and security by the tenure of military service. ^55 Even select troops of hostile barbarians
were frequently compelled or persuaded to consume their dangerous valor in remote climates, and for the benefit of the state. ^56
All these were included under the general name of auxiliaries; and howsoever they might vary according to the difference of
times and circumstances, their numbers were seldom much inferior to those of the legions themselves. ^57 Among the auxiliaries,
the bravest and most faithful bands were placed under the command of praefects and centurions, and severely trained in the arts of
Roman discipline; but the far greater part retained those arms, to which the nature of their country, or their early habits of
life, more peculiarly adapted them.  By this institution, each legion, to whom a certain proportion of auxiliaries was allotted,
contained within itself every species of lighter troops, and of missile weapons; and was capable of encountering every nation,
with the advantages of its respective arms and discipline. ^58 Nor was the legion destitute of what, in modern language, would
be styled a train of artillery. It consisted in ten military engines of the largest, and fifty-five of a smaller size; but all
of which, either in an oblique or horizontal manner, discharged stones and darts with irresistible violence. ^59 
[Footnote 55: Such, in particular, was the state of the Batavians.  Tacit. Germania, c. 29.]

[Footnote 56: Marcus Antoninus obliged the vanquished Quadi and Marcomanni to supply him with a large body of troops, which he
immediately sent into Britain.  Dion Cassius, l. lxxi. (c. 16.)]  [Footnote 57: Tacit. Annal. iv. 5.  Those who fix a regular
proportion of as many foot, and twice as many horse, confound the auxiliaries of the emperors with the Italian allies of the
republic.]

[Footnote 58: Vegetius, ii. 2.  Arrian, in his order of march and battle against the Alani.]

[Footnote 59: The subject of the ancient machines is treated with great knowledge and ingenuity by the Chevalier Folard, (Polybe,
tom. ii. p. 233- 290.) He prefers them in many respects to our modern cannon and mortars.  We may observe, that the use of them
in the field gradually became more prevalent, in proportion as personal valor and military skill declined with the Roman empire. 
When men were no longer found, their place was supplied by machines.  See Vegetius, ii. 25. Arrian.]

     The camp of a Roman legion presented the appearance of a fortified city. ^60 As soon as the space was marked out, the
pioneers carefully levelled the ground, and removed every impediment that might interrupt its perfect regularity.  Its form
was an exact quadrangle; and we may calculate, that a square of about seven hundred yards was sufficient for the encampment of
twenty thousand Romans; though a similar number of our own troops would expose to the enemy a front of more than treble that
extent.  In the midst of the camp, the praetorium, or general's quarters, rose above the others; the cavalry, the infantry, and
the auxiliaries occupied their respective stations; the streets were broad and perfectly straight, and a vacant space of two
hundred feet was left on all sides between the tents and the rampart. The rampart itself was usually twelve feet high, armed
with a line of strong and intricate palisades, and defended by a ditch of twelve feet in depth as well as in breadth.  This
important labor was performed by the hands of the legionaries themselves; to whom the use of the spade and the pickaxe was no
less familiar than that of the sword or pilum.  Active valor may often be the present of nature; but such patient diligence can be
the fruit only of habit and discipline. ^61 

[Footnote 60: Vegetius finishes his second book, and the description of the legion, with the following emphatic words: -
"Universa quae ix quoque belli genere necessaria esse creduntur, secum Jegio debet ubique portare, ut in quovis loco fixerit
castra, arma'am faciat civitatem."]

[Footnote 61: For the Roman Castrametation, see Polybius, l. vi. with Lipsius de Militia Romana, Joseph. de Bell.  Jud. l. iii. c.
5.  Vegetius, i. 21 - 25, iii. 9, and Memoires de Guichard, tom. i. c. 1.]

     Whenever the trumpet gave the signal of departure, the camp was almost instantly broke up, and the troops fell into their
ranks without delay or confusion.  Besides their arms, which the legendaries scarcely considered as an encumbrance, they were
laden with their kitchen furniture, the instruments of fortification, and the provision of many days. ^62 Under this
weight, which would oppress the delicacy of a modern soldier, they were trained by a regular step to advance, in about six
hours, near twenty miles. ^63 On the appearance of an enemy, they threw aside their baggage, and by easy and rapid evolutions
converted the column of march into an order of battle. ^64 The slingers and archers skirmished in the front; the auxiliaries
formed the first line, and were seconded or sustained by the strength of the legions; the cavalry covered the flanks, and the
military engines were placed in the rear. 

[Footnote 62: Cicero in Tusculan. ii. 37, [15.] - Joseph. de Bell.  Jud. l. iii. 5, Frontinus, iv. 1.]

[Footnote 63: Vegetius, i. 9.  See Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxv. p. 187.]

[Footnote 64: See those evolutions admirably well explained by M. Guichard Nouveaux Memoires, tom. i. p. 141 - 234.]

     Such were the arts of war, by which the Roman emperors defended their extensive conquests, and preserved a military
spirit, at a time when every other virtue was oppressed by luxury and despotism.  If, in the consideration of their armies, we pass
from their discipline to their numbers, we shall not find it easy to define them with any tolerable accuracy.  We may compute,
however, that the legion, which was itself a body of six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one Romans, might, with its attendant
auxiliaries, amount to about twelve thousand five hundred men.  The peace establishment of Hadrian and his successors was
composed of no less than thirty of these formidable brigades; and most probably formed a standing force of three hundred and
seventy-five thousand men.  Instead of being confined within the walls of fortified cities, which the Romans considered as the
refuge of weakness or pusillanimity, the legions were encamped on the banks of the great rivers, and along the frontiers of the
barbarians.  As their stations, for the most part, remained fixed and permanent, we may venture to describe the distribution of the
troops.  Three legions were sufficient for Britain. The principal strength lay upon the Rhine and Danube, and consisted of sixteen
legions, in the following proportions: two in the Lower, and three in the Upper Germany; one in Rhaetia, one in Noricum, four
in Pannonia, three in Maesia, and two in Dacia.  The defence of the Euphrates was intrusted to eight legions, six of whom were
planted in Syria, and the other two in Cappadocia.  With regard to Egypt, Africa, and Spain, as they were far removed from any
important scene of war, a single legion maintained the domestic tranquillity of each of those great provinces.  Even Italy was
not left destitute of a military force.  Above twenty thousand chosen soldiers, distinguished by the titles of City Cohorts and
Praetorian Guards, watched over the safety of the monarch and the capital.  As the authors of almost every revolution that
distracted the empire, the Praetorians will, very soon, and very loudly, demand our attention; but, in their arms and
institutions, we cannot find any circumstance which discriminated them from the legions, unless it were a more splendid appearance,
and a less rigid discipline. ^65 

[Footnote 65: Tacitus (Annal. iv. 5) has given us a state of the legions under Tiberius; and Dion Cassius (l. lv. p. 794) under
Alexander Severus.  I have endeavored to fix on the proper medium between these two periods.  See likewise Lipsius de Magnitudine
Romana, l. i. c. 4, 5.]

     The navy maintained by the emperors might seem inadequate to their greatness; but it was fully sufficient for every useful
purpose of government.  The ambition of the Romans was confined to the land; nor was that warlike people ever actuated by the
enterprising spirit which had prompted the navigators of Tyre, of Carthage, and even of Marseilles, to enlarge the bounds of the
world, and to explore the most remote coasts of the ocean.  To the Romans the ocean remained an object of terror rather than of
curiosity; ^66 the whole extent of the Mediterranean, after the destruction of Carthage, and the extirpation of the pirates, was
included within their provinces.  The policy of the emperors was directed only to preserve the peaceful dominion of that sea, and
to protect the commerce of their subjects. With these moderate views, Augustus stationed two permanent fleets in the most
convenient ports of Italy, the one at Ravenna, on the Adriatic, the other at Misenum, in the Bay of Naples.  Experience seems at
length to have convinced the ancients, that as soon as their galleys exceeded two, or at the most three ranks of oars, they
were suited rather for vain pomp than for real service.  Augustus himself, in the victory of Actium, had seen the superiority of
his own light frigates (they were called Liburnians) over the lofty but unwieldy castles of his rival. ^67 Of these Liburnians
he composed the two fleets of Ravenna and Misenum, destined to command, the one the eastern, the other the western division of
the Mediterranean; and to each of the squadrons he attached a body of several thousand marines.  Besides these two ports, which
may be considered as the principal seats of the Roman navy, a very considerable force was stationed at Frejus, on the coast of
Provence, and the Euxine was guarded by forty ships, and three thousand soldiers.  To all these we add the fleet which preserved
the communication between Gaul and Britain, and a great number of vessels constantly maintained on the Rhine and Danube, to harass
the country, or to intercept the passage of the barbarians. ^68 If we review this general state of the Imperial forces; of the
cavalry as well as infantry; of the legions, the auxiliaries, the guards, and the navy; the most liberal computation will not allow
us to fix the entire establishment by sea and by land at more than four hundred and fifty thousand men: a military power,
which, however formidable it may seem, was equalled by a monarch of the last century, whose kingdom was confined within a single
province of the Roman empire. ^69 

[Footnote 66: The Romans tried to disguise, by the pretence of religious awe their ignorance and terror.  See Tacit. Germania, c. 34.]

[Footnote 67: Plutarch, in Marc. Anton. [c. 67.] And yet, if we may credit Orosius, these monstrous castles were no more than ten
feet above the water, vi. 19.]

[Footnote 68: See Lipsius, de Magnitud. Rom. l. i. c. 5.  The sixteen last chapters of Vegetius relate to naval affairs.] 
[Footnote 69: Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. c. 29.  It must, however, be remembered, that France still feels that
extraordinary effort.] 

     We have attempted to explain the spirit which moderated, and the strength which supported, the power of Hadrian and the
Antonines.  We shall now endeavor, with clearness and precision, to describe the provinces once united under their sway, but, at
present, divided into so many independent and hostile states. Spain, the western extremity of the empire, of Europe, and
of the ancient world, has, in every age, invariably preserved the same natural limits; the Pyrenaean Mountains, the Mediterranean,
and the Atlantic Ocean. That great peninsula, at present so unequally divided between two sovereigns, was distributed by
Augustus into three provinces, Lusitania, Baetica, and Tarraconensis.  The kingdom of Portugal now fills the place of
the warlike country of the Lusitanians; and the loss sustained by the former on the side of the East, is compensated by an
accession of territory towards the North. The confines of Grenada and Andalusia correspond with those of ancient Baetica.  The
remainder of Spain, Gallicia, and the Asturias, Biscay, and Navarre, Leon, and the two Castiles, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia,
and Arragon, all contributed to form the third and most considerable of the Roman governments, which, from the name of
its capital, was styled the province of Tarragona. ^70 Of the native barbarians, the Celtiberians were the most powerful, as
the Cantabrians and Asturians proved the most obstinate. Confident in the strength of their mountains, they were the last
who submitted to the arms of Rome, and the first who threw off the yoke of the Arabs.

[Footnote 70: See Strabo, l. ii.  It is natural enough to suppose, that Arragon is derived from Tarraconensis, and several
moderns who have written in Latin use those words as synonymous.  It is, however, certain, that the Arragon, a little stream which
falls from the Pyrenees into the Ebro, first gave its name to a country, and gradually to a kingdom.  See d'Anville, Geographie
du Moyen Age, p. 181.]

     Ancient Gaul, as it contained the whole country between the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Rhine, and the Ocean, was of greater
extent than modern France. To the dominions of that powerful monarchy, with its recent acquisitions of Alsace and Lorraine, we
must add the duchy of Savoy, the cantons of Switzerland, the four electorates of the Rhine, and the territories of Liege,
Luxemburgh, Hainault, Flanders, and Brabant.  When Augustus gave laws to the conquests of his father, he introduced a division of
Gaul, equally adapted to the progress of the legions, to the course of the rivers, and to the principal national distinctions,
which had comprehended above a hundred independent states. ^71 The sea-coast of the Mediterranean, Languedoc, Provence, and
Dauphine, received their provincial appellation from the colony of Narbonne.  The government of Aquitaine was extended from the
Pyrenees to the Loire.  The country between the Loire and the Seine was styled the Celtic Gaul, and soon borrowed a new
denomination from the celebrated colony of Lugdunum, or Lyons.  The Belgic lay beyond the Seine, and in more ancient times had
been bounded only by the Rhine; but a little before the age of Caesar, the Germans, abusing their superiority of valor, had
occupied a considerable portion of the Belgic territory.  The Roman conquerors very eagerly embraced so flattering a
circumstance, and the Gallic frontier of the Rhine, from Basil to Leyden, received the pompous names of the Upper and the Lower
Germany. ^72 Such, under the reign of the Antonines, were the six provinces of Gaul; the Narbonnese, Aquitaine, the Celtic, or
Lyonnese, the Belgic, and the two Germanies.

[Footnote 71: One hundred and fifteen cities appear in the Notitia of Gaul; and it is well known that this appellation was
applied not only to the capital town, but to the whole territory of each state.  But Plutarch and Appian increase the number of
tribes to three or four hundred.]  [Footnote 72: D'Anville.  Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule.]

     We have already had occasion to mention the conquest of Britain, and to fix the boundary of the Roman Province in this
island.  It comprehended all England, Wales, and the Lowlands of Scotland, as far as the Friths of Dumbarton and Edinburgh. 
Before Britain lost her freedom, the country was irregularly divided between thirty tribes of barbarians, of whom the most
considerable were the Belgae in the West, the Brigantes in the North, the Silures in South Wales, and the Iceni in Norfolk and
Suffolk. ^73 As far as we can either trace or credit the resemblance of manners and language, Spain, Gaul, and Britain
were peopled by the same hardy race of savages.  Before they yielded to the Roman arms, they often disputed the field, and
often renewed the contest.  After their submission, they constituted the western division of the European provinces, which
extended from the columns of Hercules to the wall of Antoninus, and from the mouth of the Tagus to the sources of the Rhine and
Danube.

[Footnote 73: Whittaker's History of Manchester, vol. i. c. 3.]  

     Before the Roman conquest, the country which is now called Lombardy, was not considered as a part of Italy.  It had been
occupied by a powerful colony of Gauls, who, settling themselves along the banks of the Po, from Piedmont to Romagna, carried
their arms and diffused their name from the Alps to the Apennine.  The Ligurians dwelt on the rocky coast which now forms the
republic of Genoa.  Venice was yet unborn; but the territories of that state, which lie to the east of the Adige, were inhabited by
the Venetians. ^74 The middle part of the peninsula, that now composes the duchy of Tuscany and the ecclesiastical state, was
the ancient seat of the Etruscans and Umbrians; to the former of whom Italy was indebted for the first rudiments of civilized
life. ^75 The Tyber rolled at the foot of the seven hills of Rome, and the country of the Sabines, the Latins, and the Volsci,
from that river to the frontiers of Naples, was the theatre of her infant victories.  On that celebrated ground the first
consuls deserved triumphs, their successors adorned villas, and their posterity have erected convents. ^76 Capua and Campania
possessed the immediate territory of Naples; the rest of the kingdom was inhabited by many warlike nations, the Marsi, the
Samnites, the Apulians, and the Lucanians; and the sea-coasts had been covered by the flourishing colonies of the Greeks.  We may
remark, that when Augustus divided Italy into eleven regions, the little province of Istria was annexed to that seat of Roman
sovereignty. ^77

[Footnote 74: The Italian Veneti, though often confounded with the Gauls, were more probably of Illyrian origin.  See M. Freret,
Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xviii.  Note: Or Liburnian, according to Niebuhr.  Vol. i. p. 172. -M.] 
[Footnote 75: See Maffei Verona illustrata, l. i.

     Note: Add Niebuhr, vol. i., and Otfried Muller, die Etrusker, which contains much that is known, and much that is
conjectured, about this remarkable people.  Also Micali, Storia degli antichi popoli Italiani. Florence, 1832 - M.]

[Footnote 76: The first contrast was observed by the ancients.  See Florus, i. 11.  The second must strike every modern
traveller.] [Footnote 77: Pliny (Hist. Natur. l. iii.) follows the division of Italy by Augustus.]

     The European provinces of Rome were protected by the course of the Rhine and the Danube.  The latter of those mighty streams,
which rises at the distance of only thirty miles from the former, flows above thirteen hundred miles, for the most part to the
south-east, collects the tribute of sixty navigable rivers, and is, at length, through six mouths, received into the Euxine,
which appears scarcely equal to such an accession of waters. ^78 The provinces of the Danube soon acquired the general appellation
of Illyricum, or the Illyrian frontier, ^79 and were esteemed the most warlike of the empire; but they deserve to be more
particularly considered under the names of Rhaetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Maesia, Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. 
[Footnote 78: Tournefort, Voyages en Grece et Asie Mineure, lettre xviii.] 

[Footnote 79: The name of Illyricum originally belonged to the sea-coast of the Adriatic, and was gradually extended by the
Romans from the Alps to the Euxine Sea.  See Severini Pannonia, l. i. c. 3.]

     The province of Rhaetia, which soon extinguished the name of the Vindelicians, extended from the summit of the Alps to the
banks of the Danube; from its source, as far as its conflux with the Inn.  The greatest part of the flat country is subject to the
elector of Bavaria; the city of Augsburg is protected by the constitution of the German empire; the Grisons are safe in their
mountains, and the country of Tirol is ranked among the numerous provinces of the house of Austria.

     The wide extent of territory which is included between the Inn, the Danube, and the Save, - Austria, Styria, Carinthia,
Carniola, the Lower Hungary, and Sclavonia, - was known to the ancients under the names of Noricum and Pannonia.  In their
original state of independence, their fierce inhabitants were intimately connected.  Under the Roman government they were
frequently united, and they still remain the patrimony of a single family. They now contain the residence of a German prince,
who styles himself Emperor of the Romans, and form the centre, as well as strength, of the Austrian power.  It may not be improper
to observe, that if we except Bohemia, Moravia, the northern skirts of Austria, and a part of Hungary between the Teyss and
the Danube, all the other dominions of the House of Austria were comprised within the limits of the Roman Empire.

     Dalmatia, to which the name of Illyricum more properly belonged, was a long, but narrow tract, between the Save and the
Adriatic.  The best part of the sea-coast, which still retains its ancient appellation, is a province of the Venetian state, and
the seat of the little republic of Ragusa.  The inland parts have assumed the Sclavonian names of Croatia and Bosnia; the former
obeys an Austrian governor, the latter a Turkish pacha; but the whole country is still infested by tribes of barbarians, whose
savage independence irregularly marks the doubtful limit of the Christian and Mahometan power. ^80

[Footnote 80: A Venetian traveller, the Abbate Fortis, has lately given us some account of those very obscure countries.  But the
geography and antiquities of the western Illyricum can be expected only from the munificence of the emperor, its sovereign.]

     After the Danube had received the waters of the Teyss and the Save, it acquired, at least among the Greeks, the name of
Ister. ^81 It formerly divided Maesia and Dacia, the latter of which, as we have already seen, was a conquest of Trajan, and the
only province beyond the river.  If we inquire into the present state of those countries, we shall find that, on the left hand of
the Danube, Temeswar and Transylvania have been annexed, after many revolutions, to the crown of Hungary; whilst the
principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia acknowledge the supremacy of the Ottoman Porte.  On the right hand of the Danube,
Maesia, which, during the middle ages, was broken into the barbarian kingdoms of Servia and Bulgaria, is again united in
Turkish slavery.

[Footnote 81: The Save rises near the confines of Istria, and was considered by the more early Greeks as the principal stream of
the Danube.] 

     The appellation of Roumelia, which is still bestowed by the Turks on the extensive countries of Thrace, Macedonia, and
Greece, preserves the memory of their ancient state under the Roman empire.  In the time of the Antonines, the martial regions
of Thrace, from the mountains of Haemus and Rhodope, to the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, had assumed the form of a province.
Notwithstanding the change of masters and of religion, the new city of Rome, founded by Constantine on the banks of the
Bosphorus, has ever since remained the capital of a great monarchy.  The kingdom of Macedonia, which, under the reign of
Alexander, gave laws to Asia, derived more solid advantages from the policy of the two Philips; and with its dependencies of
Epirus and Thessaly, extended from the Aegean to the Ionian Sea.  When we reflect on the fame of Thebes and Argos, of Sparta and
Athens, we can scarcely persuade ourselves, that so many immortal republics of ancient Greece were lost in a single province of the
Roman empire, which, from the superior influence of the Achaean league, was usually denominated the province of Achaia. 

     Such was the state of Europe under the Roman emperors.  The provinces of Asia, without excepting the transient conquests of
Trajan, are all comprehended within the limits of the Turkish power.  But, instead of following the arbitrary divisions of
despotism and ignorance, it will be safer for us, as well as more agreeable, to observe the indelible characters of nature.  The
name of Asia Minor is attributed with some propriety to the peninsula, which, confined betwixt the Euxine and the
Mediterranean, advances from the Euphrates towards Europe.  The most extensive and flourishing district, westward of Mount Taurus
and the River Halys, was dignified by the Romans with the exclusive title of Asia.  The jurisdiction of that province
extended over the ancient monarchies of Troy, Lydia, and Phrygia, the maritime countries of the Pamphylians, Lycians, and Carians,
and the Grecian colonies of Ionia, which equalled in arts, though not in arms, the glory of their parent.  The kingdoms of Bithynia
and Pontus possessed the northern side of the peninsula from Constantinople to Trebizond.  On the opposite side, the province
of Cilicia was terminated by the mountains of Syria: the inland country, separated from the Roman Asia by the River Halys, and
from Armenia by the Euphrates, had once formed the independent kingdom of Cappadocia.  In this place we may observe, that the
northern shores of the Euxine, beyond Trebizond in Asia, and beyond the Danube in Europe, acknowledged the sovereignty of the
emperors, and received at their hands either tributary princes or Roman garrisons.  Budzak, Crim Tartary, Circassia, and Mingrelia,
are the modern appellations of those savage countries. ^82  [Footnote 82: See the Periplus of Arrian.  He examined the coasts
of the Euxine, when he was governor of Cappadocia.]

     Under the successors of Alexander, Syria was the seat of the Seleucidae, who reigned over Upper Asia, till the successful
revolt of the Parthians confined their dominions between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean.  When Syria became subject to
the Romans, it formed the eastern frontier of their empire: nor did that province, in its utmost latitude, know any other bounds
than the mountains of Cappadocia to the north, and towards the south, the confines of Egypt, and the Red Sea.  Phoenicia and
Palestine were sometimes annexed to, and sometimes separated from, the jurisdiction of Syria.  The former of these was a
narrow and rocky coast; the latter was a territory scarcely superior to Wales, either in fertility or extent. ^* Yet
Phoenicia and Palestine will forever live in the memory of mankind; since America, as well as Europe, has received letters
from the one, and religion from the other. ^83 A sandy desert, alike destitute of wood and water, skirts along the doubtful
confine of Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea.  The wandering life of the Arabs was inseparably connected with their
independence; and wherever, on some spots less barren than the rest, they ventured to for many settled habitations, they soon
became subjects to the Roman empire. ^84

[Footnote *: This comparison is exaggerated, with the intention, no doubt, of attacking the authority of the Bible, which boasts
of the fertility of Palestine.  Gibbon's only authorities were that of Strabo (l. xvi. 1104) and the present state of the
country.  But Strabo only speaks of the neighborhood of Jerusalem, which he calls barren and arid to the extent of sixty
stadia round the city: in other parts he gives a favorable testimony to the fertility of many parts of Palestine: thus he
says, "Near Jericho there is a grove of palms, and a country of a hundred stadia, full of springs, and well peopled." Moreover,
Strabo had never seen Palestine; he spoke only after reports, which may be as inaccurate as those according to which he has
composed that description of Germany, in which Gluverius has detected so many errors.  (Gluv. Germ. iii. 1.) Finally, his
testimony is contradicted and refuted by that of other ancient authors, and by medals.  Tacitus says, in speaking of Palestine,
"The inhabitants are healthy and robust; the rains moderate; the soil fertile." (Hist. v. 6.) Ammianus Macellinus says also, "The
last of the Syrias is Palestine, a country of considerable extent, abounding in clean and well-cultivated land, and
containing some fine cities, none of which yields to the other; but, as it were, being on a parallel, are rivals." - xiv. 8.  See
also the historian Josephus, Hist. vi. 1.  Procopius of Caeserea, who lived in the sixth century, says that Chosroes, king of
Persia, had a great desire to make himself master of Palestine, on account of its extraordinary fertility, its opulence, and the
great number of its inhabitants.  The Saracens thought the same, and were afraid that Omar. when he went to Jerusalem, charmed
with the fertility of the soil and the purity of the air, would never return to Medina.  (Ockley, Hist. of Sarac. i. 232.) The
importance attached by the Romans to the conquest of Palestine, and the obstacles they encountered, prove also the richness and
population of the country.  Vespasian and Titus caused medals to be struck with trophies, in which Palestine is represented by a
female under a palm-tree, to signify the richness of he country, with this legend: Judea capta.  Other medals also indicate this
fertility; for instance, that of Herod holding a bunch of grapes, and that of the young Agrippa displaying fruit.  As to the
present state of he country, one perceives that it is not fair to draw any inference against its ancient fertility: the disasters
through which it has passed, the government to which it is subject, the disposition of the inhabitants, explain sufficiently
the wild and uncultivated appearance of the land, where, nevertheless, fertile and cultivated districts are still found,
according to the testimony of travellers; among others, of Shaw, Maundrel, La Rocque, &c. - G.  The Abbe Guenee, in his Lettres de
quelques Juifs a Mons. de Voltaire, has exhausted the subject of the fertility of Palestine; for Voltaire had likewise indulged in
sarcasm on this subject.  Gibbon was assailed on this point, not, indeed, by Mr. Davis, who, he slyly insinuates,was prevented by
his patriotism as a Welshman from resenting the comparison with Wales, but by other writers.  In his Vindication, he first
established the correctness of his measurement of Palestine, which he estimates as 7600 square English miles, while Wales is
about 7011.  As to fertility, he proceeds in the following dexterously composed and splendid passage: "The emperor Frederick
II., the enemy and the victim of the clergy, is accused of saying, after his return from his crusade, that the God of the
Jews would have despised his promised land, if he had once seen the fruitful realms of Sicily and Naples." (See Giannone, Istor.
Civ. del R. di Napoli, ii. 245.) This raillery, which malice has, perhaps, falsely imputed to Frederick, is inconsistent with truth
and piety; yet it must be confessed that the soil of Palestine does not contain that inexhaustible, and, as it were, spontaneous
principle of fertility, which, under the most unfavorable circumstances, has covered with rich harvests the banks of the
Nile, the fields of Sicily, or the plains of Poland.  The Jordan is the only navigable river of Palestine: a considerable part of
the narrow space is occupied, or rather lost, in the Dead Sea whose horrid aspect inspires every sensation of disgust, and
countenances every tale of horror.  The districts which border on Arabia partake of the sandy quality of the adjacent desert.  The
face of the country, except the sea- coast, and the valley of the Jordan, is covered with mountains, which appear, for the most
part, as naked and barren rocks; and in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, there is a real scarcity of the two elements of earth
and water. (See Maundrel's Travels, p. 65, and Reland's Palestin. i. 238, 395.) These disadvantages, which now operate in their
fullest extent, were formerly corrected by the labors of a numerous people, and the active protection of a wise government. 
The hills were clothed with rich beds of artificial mould, the rain was collected in vast cisterns, a supply of fresh water was
conveyed by pipes and aqueducts to the dry lands.  The breed of cattle was encouraged in those parts which were not adapted for
tillage, and almost every spot was compelled to yield some production for the use of the inhabitants. 

     Pater ispe colendi
     Haud facilem esse viam voluit, primusque par artem
     Movit agros; curis acuens mortalia corda,
     Nec torpere gravi passus sua Regna veterno.

     Gibbon, Misc. Works, iv. 540.

But Gibbon has here eluded the question about the land "flowing
with milk and honey." He is describing Judaea only, without
comprehending Galilee, or the rich pastures beyond the Jordan,
even now proverbial for their flocks and herds.  (See
Burckhardt's Travels, and Hist of Jews, i. 178.) The following is
believed to be a fair statement: "The extraordinary fertility of
the whole country must be taken into the account.  No part was
waste; very little was occupied by unprofitable wood; the more
fertile hills were cultivated in artificial terraces, others were
hung with orchards of fruit trees the more rocky and barren
districts were covered with vineyards." Even in the present day,
the wars and misgovernment of ages have not exhausted the natural
richness of the soil.  "Galilee," says Malte Brun, "would be a
paradise were it inhabited by an industrious people under an
enlightened government.  No land could be less dependent on
foreign importation; it bore within itself every thing that could
be necessary for the subsistence and comfort of a simple
agricultural people.  The climate was healthy, the seasons
regular; the former rains, which fell about October, after the
vintage, prepared the ground for the seed; that latter, which
prevailed during March and the beginning of April, made it grow
rapidly.  Directly the rains ceased, the grain ripened with still
greater rapidity, and was gathered in before the end of May.  The
summer months were dry and very hot, but the nights cool and
refreshed by copious dews.  In September, the vintage was
gathered.  Grain of all kinds, wheat, barley, millet, zea, and
other sorts, grew in abundance; the wheat commonly yielded thirty
for one.  Besides the vine and the olive, the almond, the date,
figs of many kinds, the orange, the pomegranate, and many other
fruit trees, flourished in the greatest luxuriance.  Great
quantity of honey was collected.  The balm-tree, which produced
the opobalsamum,a great object of trade, was probably introduced
from Arabia, in the time of Solomon.  It flourished about Jericho
and in Gilead." - Milman's Hist. of Jews. i. 177. - M.]

[Footnote 83: The progress of religion is well known.  The use of
letter was introduced among the savages of Europe about fifteen
hundred years before Christ; and the Europeans carried them to
America about fifteen centuries after the Christian Aera.  But in
a period of three thousand years, the Phoenician alphabet
received considerable alterations, as it passed through the hands
of the Greeks and Romans.]

[Footnote 84: Dion Cassius, lib. lxviii. p. 1131.]

     The geographers of antiquity have frequently hesitated to
what portion of the globe they should ascribe Egypt. ^85 By its
situation that celebrated kingdom is included within the immense
peninsula of Africa; but it is accessible only on the side of
Asia, whose revolutions, in almost every period of history, Egypt
has humbly obeyed.  A Roman praefect was seated on the splendid
throne of the Ptolemies; and the iron sceptre of the Mamelukes is
now in the hands of a Turkish pacha.  The Nile flows down the
country, above five hundred miles from the tropic of Cancer to
the Mediterranean, and marks on either side of the extent of
fertility by the measure of its inundations.  Cyrene, situate
towards the west, and along the sea-coast, was first a Greek
colony, afterwards a province of Egypt, and is now lost in the
desert of Barca. ^*

[Footnote 85: Ptolemy and Strabo, with the modern geographers,
fix the Isthmus of Suez as the boundary of Asia and Africa. 
Dionysius, Mela, Pliny, Sallust, Hirtius, and Solinus, have
preferred for that purpose the western branch of the Nile, or
even the great Catabathmus, or descent, which last would assign
to Asia, not only Egypt, but part of Libya.]

[Footnote *: The French editor has a long and unnecessary note on
the History of Cyrene.  For the present state of that coast and
country, the volume of Captain Beechey is full of interesting
details.  Egypt, now an independent and improving kingdom,
appears, under the enterprising rule of Mahommed Ali, likely to
revenge its former oppression upon the decrepit power of the
Turkish empire. - M. - This note was written in 1838.  The future
destiny of Egypt is an important problem, only to be solved by
time.  This observation will also apply to the new French colony
in Algiers. - M. 1845.] 

     From Cyrene to the ocean, the coast of Africa extends above
fifteen hundred miles; yet so closely is it pressed between the
Mediterranean and the Sahara, or sandy desert, that its breadth
seldom exceeds fourscore or a hundred miles.  The eastern
division was considered by the Romans as the more peculiar and
proper province of Africa.  Till the arrival of the Phoenician
colonies, that fertile country was inhabited by the Libyans, the
most savage of mankind.  Under the immediate jurisdiction of
Carthage, it became the centre of commerce and empire; but the
republic of Carthage is now degenerated into the feeble and
disorderly states of Tripoli and Tunis.  The military government
of Algiers oppresses the wide extent of Numidia, as it was once
united under Massinissa and Jugurtha; but in the time of
Augustus, the limits of Numidia were contracted; and, at least,
two thirds of the country acquiesced in the name of Mauritania,
with the epithet of Caesariensis.  The genuine Mauritania, or
country of the Moors, which, from the ancient city of Tingi, or
Tangier, was distinguished by the appellation of Tingitana, is
represented by the modern kingdom of Fez.  Salle, on the Ocean,
so infamous at present for its piratical depredations, was
noticed by the Romans, as the extreme object of their power, and
almost of their geography.  A city of their foundation may still
be discovered near Mequinez, the residence of the barbarian whom
we condescend to style the Emperor of Morocco; but it does not
appear, that his more southern dominions, Morocco itself, and
Segelmessa, were ever comprehended within the Roman province. The
western parts of Africa are intersected by the branches of Mount
Atlas, a name so idly celebrated by the fancy of poets; ^86 but
which is now diffused over the immense ocean that rolls between
the ancient and the new continent. ^87

[Footnote 86: The long range, moderate height, and gentle
declivity of Mount Atlas, (see Shaw's Travels, p. 5,) are very
unlike a solitary mountain which rears its head into the clouds,
and seems to support the heavens.  The peak of Teneriff, on the
contrary, rises a league and a half above the surface of the sea;
and, as it was frequently visited by the Phoenicians, might
engage the notice of the Greek poets.  See Buffon, Histoire
Naturelle, tom. i. p. 312.  Histoire des Voyages, tom. ii.] 
[Footnote 87: M. de Voltaire, tom. xiv. p. 297, unsupported by
either fact or probability, has generously bestowed the Canary
Islands on the Roman empire.] 

     Having now finished the circuit of the Roman empire, we may
observe, that Africa is divided from Spain by a narrow strait of
about twelve miles, through which the Atlantic flows into the
Mediterranean.  The columns of Hercules, so famous among the
ancients, were two mountains which seemed to have been torn
asunder by some convulsion of the elements; and at the foot of
the European mountain, the fortress of Gibraltar is now seated. 
The whole extent of the Mediterranean Sea, its coasts and its
islands, were comprised within the Roman dominion.  Of the larger
islands, the two Baleares, which derive their name of Majorca and
Minorca from their respective size, are subject at present, the
former to Spain, the latter to Great Britain. ^* It is easier to
deplore the fate, than to describe the actual condition, of
Corsica. ^! Two Italian sovereigns assume a regal title from
Sardinia and Sicily.  Crete, or Candia, with Cyprus, and most of
the smaller islands of Greece and Asia, have been subdued by the
Turkish arms, whilst the little rock of Malta defies their power,
and has emerged, under the government of its military Order, into
fame and opulence. ^!!

[Footnote *: Minorca was lost to Great Britain in 1782.  Ann.
Register for that year. - M.]

[Footnote !: The gallant struggles of the Corsicans for their
independence, under Paoli, were brought to a close in the year
1769.  This volume was published in 1776.  See Botta, Storia
d'Italia, vol. xiv. - M.] 

[Footnote !!: Malta, it need scarcely be said, is now in the
possession of the English.  We have not, however, thought it
necessary to notice every change in the political state of the
world, since the time of Gibbon. - M] 

     This long enumeration of provinces, whose broken fragments
have formed so many powerful kingdoms, might almost induce us to
forgive the vanity or ignorance of the ancients.  Dazzled with
the extensive sway, the irresistible strength, and the real or
affected moderation of the emperors, they permitted themselves to
despise, and sometimes to forget, the outlying countries which
had been left in the enjoyment of a barbarous independence; and
they gradually usurped the license of confounding the Roman
monarchy with the globe of the earth. ^88 But the temper, as well
as knowledge, of a modern historian, require a more sober and
accurate language.  He may impress a juster image of the
greatness of Rome, by observing that the empire was above two
thousand miles in breadth, from the wall of Antoninus and the
northern limits of Dacia, to Mount Atlas and the tropic of
Cancer; that it extended in length more than three thousand miles
from the Western Ocean to the Euphrates; that it was situated in
the finest part of the Temperate Zone, between the twenty-fourth
and fifty-sixth degrees of northern latitude; and that it was
supposed to contain above sixteen hundred thousand square miles,
for the most part of fertile and well-cultivated land. ^89 
[Footnote 88: Bergier, Hist. des Grands Chemins, l. iii. c. 1, 2,
3, 4, a very useful collection.]

[Footnote 89: See Templeman's Survey of the Globe; but I distrust
both the Doctor's learning and his maps.]
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