214044_The_Essa ... rd_Of_Montaigne_Vol_II.pdf - OUDL Home

230 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
one nor other, they will maintaine it to be both. If by
a certaine judgement you say that you cannot tell,
they will maintaine that you can tell. Nay, if by an
affirmative axiome you sweare that you stand in some
doubt, they will dispute that you doubt not of it, or
that you cannot judge or maintaine that you are in
doubt. And by this extremitie of doubt, which
staggereth it selfe, they separate and divide themselves
from many opinions, yea from those which divers ways
have maintained both the doubt and the ignorance.
Why shall it not be granted then (say they) as to
Dogmatists, or Doctrine-teachers, for one to say greene
and another yellow, so for them to doubt? Is there
any thing can be proposed unto you, either to allow or
refuse which may not lawfully be considered as ambiguous
and doubtfull ? And whereas others be carried
either by the custome of their countne, or by the institution
of their parents, or by chance, as by a tempest,
without choyce or judgement, yea sometimes before
the age of discretion, to such and such another opinion,
to the Stoike or Epicurean Sect, to which they finde
themselves more engaged, subjected, or fast tyed, as to
a prize they cannot let goe : Ad quamcunque disciplinam,
velut Tempestate, delati, ad earn tanquam ad saxum
adhaerescunt :¹ 'Being carried as it were by a Tempest
to any kinde of doctrine, they sticke close to it as it
were to a rocke.' Why shall not these likewise be
permitted to maintaine their libertie and consider of
things without dutie or compulsion ? Hoc liberiores et
solutiores, quod integra illis est judicandi potestas:*
' They are so much the freer and at libertie, for that
their power of judgement is kept entire.' Is it not
some advantage for one to finde himselfe disingaged
from necessitie which brideleth others: Is it not better
to remaine in suspence than to entangle himselfe in so
many errours that humane fantasie hath brought forth ?
Is it not better for a man to suspend his owne perswasion
than to meddle with these sedicious and quarrellous
divisions? What shall I chuse ? Mary, what you list,
1 CIC. Acad. Qu. 1. x. ² Ibid.