Produced by David Widger
ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Translated by Charles Cotton
Edited by William Carew Hazilitt
1877
CONTENTS OF VOLUME 15.
V. Upon Some verses of Virgil.
CHAPTER V
UPON SOME VERSES OF VIRGIL
CHAPTER V.
By how much profitable thoughts are more full and solid, by so much arethey also more cumbersome and heavy: vice, death, poverty, diseases, aregrave and grievous subjects. A man should have his soul instructed inthe means to sustain and to contend with evils, and in the rules ofliving and believing well: and often rouse it up, and exercise it in thisnoble study; but in an ordinary soul it must be by intervals and withmoderation; it will otherwise grow besotted if continually intent uponit. I found it necessary, when I was young, to put myself in mind andsolicit myself to keep me to my duty; gaiety and health do not, they say,so well agree with those grave and serious meditations: I am at presentin another state: the conditions of age but too much put me in mind, urgeme to wisdom, and preach to me. From the excess of sprightliness I amfallen into that of severity, which is much more troublesome; and forthat reason I now and then suffer myself purposely a little to run intodisorder, and occupy my mind in wanton and youthful thoughts, wherewithit diverts itself. I am of late but too reserved, too heavy, and tooripe; years every day read to me lectures of coldness and temperance.This body of mine avoids disorder and dreads it; 'tis now my body's turnto guide my mind towards reformation; it governs, in turn, and morerudely and imperiously than the other; it lets me not an hour alone,sleeping or waking, but is always preaching to me death, patience, andrepentance. I now defend myself from temperance, as I have formerly donefrom pleasure; it draws me too much back, and even to stupidity. Now Iwill be master of myself, to all intents and purposes; wisdom has itsexcesses, and has no less need of moderation than folly. Therefore, lestI should wither, dry up, and overcharge myself with prudence, in theintervals and truces my infirmities allow me:
"Mens intenta suis ne seit usque malis."
["That my mind may not eternally be intent upon my ills."
—Ovid., Trist., iv. i, 4.]
I gently turn aside, and avert my eyes from the stormy and cloudy sky Ihave before me, which, thanks be to God, I regard without fear, but notwithout meditation and study, and amuse myself in the remembrance of mybetter years:
"Animus quo perdidit, optat,
Atque in praeterita se totus imagine versat."
["The mind wishes to have what it has lost, and throws itself
wholly into memories of the past."—Petronius, c. 128.]
Let childhood look forward and age backward; was not this thesignification of Janus' double face? Let years draw me along if theywill, but it shall be backward; as long as my eyes can discern thepleasant season expired, I shall now and then turn them that way; thoughit escape from my blood and veins, I shall not, however, root the imageof it out of my memory:
"Hoc est
Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui."
["'Tis to live twice to be able to enjoy one's former life again."
—Martial, x. 23, 7.]
Plato ordains that