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210 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
It is they that store and supply us with all such things
as may make us live happily and well, and instruct
us how to passe our time without sorrow or offence.
Seemeth not this goodly orator to speake of the
Almighties and overliving Gods condition? And
touching effects, a thousand poore seelie women in a
countrie towne have lived and live a life much more
reposed, more peaceable, and more constant than ever
he did.
Deus ille fuit Deus, inclyte Memmi,
Qui princeps vitas rationem invenit earn, qua
Nunc appellator sapientia, qutque per artem,
Fluctibus e tantis vitam tantisque tenebris.
In tarn tranquillo et tarn clara luce locavit. 1
Good sir, it was God, God it was, first found
That course of man's lite, which now is renown'd
By name of wisdome; who by art reposed,
Our life in so cleare light, calme so composed,
From so great darknesse, so great waves opposed.
Observe what glorious and noble words these be:
yet but a sleight accident brought this wisemans understanding
to a far worse condition than that of a simple
shepherd: notwithstanding this divine Teacher, and
this heavenly wisdome. Of like impudence is the
promise of Democritus his Booke, ' I will now speake
of all things:' And that fond title which Aristotle
gives us of mortall gods, and that rash judgement of
Chrysippus that Dion was as vertuous as God: And
my Seneca saith he acknowledgeth that God hath given
him life, but how to live well that he hath of himselfe.
Like unto this other: In virtute vere gloriamur, quod
non contingent, si id donum a Deo non a nobis haberemus: 2
' We rightly vaunt us of vertue, which we should not
doe, if we had it of God, not of ourselves:' This also
is Senecaes, that the wise man hath a fortitude like
unto Gods; but in humanity weaknesse wherein he
excelleth him. There is nothing more common than
to meet with such passages of temeritie: There is not
any of us that will he so much offended to see himselfe
¹ LUCK. 1. v. 8. ² CIC. Nat. Deor. 1, iii.