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206 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
know, if we have purchased the same with the price
of so infinite passions to which we are uncessantly
enthralled. If we be not pleased (as Socrates is) to
make this noble prerogative over beasts, to be of force,
that whereas nature hath subscribed them certain©
seasons and bounds for theirnaturall lustand voluptuousnesse,
she hath given us at all howers and occasions
the full reines of them. Vt vinum argrotis, quia prodest
raro, nocet saepissime, melius est non adhibere omnino,
quam, spe dubim salutis, in a/tertam jterniciem incurrere:
Sic, haudscio, an melius fuerit humano generi motum istum
celerem cogitationis, acumen, solertiam quam rationem
vocamus, quoniam pestifera sint multis, admodum paucis
salutaria, non dari omntno, quam tarn munifice et tarn
large dari :¹ ' As it is better not to use wine at all in
sicke persons, because it seldome doth them good, but
many times much hurt, than in hope of doubtfull health
to run into undoubted danger; so doe I not knowo
whether it were better that this swift motion of the
thought, this sharpenesse, this conceitednesse which we
call reason, should not at all be given to mankind
(because it is pernicious unto many, and healthfull to
very few) than that it should be given so plentifully
ana so largely/ What good or commoditie may we
imagine this far-understanding of so many things
brought ever unto Varro and to Aristotle? Did it
ever exempt, or could it at any time free them from
humane inconveniences? Were they ever discharged
of those accidents that incidently follow a seelie labouring
man ? Could they ever draw any ease for the gout
from logike? And howbeit they knew the humour
engendering the same to lodge in the joints, have they
felt it the lesse ? Did they at any time make a covenant
with death, although they knew full well that some
nations rejoice at her comming ? as also of cuckoldship,
because they knew women to be common in some
countries? But contrariwise having both held the
first ranke in knowledge, the one amongst the Romans,
the other among the Grecians, yea, and at such times
¹ CIC. Nat. Deor, 1. iiu c. 27.