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234 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
and irreligious opinions, invented and brought up by
false Sects. It is a white sheet prepared to take from
the finger of God what form soever it shall please him
to imprint therein. The more we addresse and commit
our selves to God, and reject our selves, the better it is
for us. Accept (saith Ecclesiastes) in good part things
both in shew and taste, as from day to day they are
presented unto thee, the rest is beyond thy knowledge.
Dominus novit cogitationes hominum, quoniam vanae
sunt: 1 'The Lord knowes the thoughts of men, that
they are vayne.' See how of three generall Sects of
Philosophic, two make expresse profession of doubt
and ignorance; and in the third, which is the Dogmatists,
it is easie to be discerned that the greatest
number have taken the face of assurance; onely
because they could set a better countenance on the
matter. They have not so much gone about to
establish any certainty in us, as to shew how farre
they had waded in seeking out the truth. Quam docti
fingunt magis quam norunt: 'Which the learned doe
rather conceit than know.'
Timaeus, being to instruct Socrates of what he
knowes of the Gods, of the world, and of men,
purposeth to speake of it as one man to another; and
that it sufficeth, if his reasons be as probable as
another mans. For exact reasons are neither in his
hands, nor in any mortall man; which one of his
Sectaries hath thus imitated : Vt potero, eocplicabo; nee
tamen,ut Pythius Apollo, certa utsint etfixa quae dixero;
sed ut homunculus, probdbilia conjectura sequens; 2 ' As
I can, I will explaine them; yet not as Apollo giving
oracles, that all should bee certaine and set downe,
that I say but as a meane man who followes likelihood
by his conjecture.' And that upon the discourse of the
contempt of death; a naturall and popular discourse.
Elsewhere he hath translated it, upon Platoes very
words: Si forte, de Deorum natura ortuque mundi dittserentes,
minus id quod habemus in animo consequimur,
1 Psalm xcii. 11.
² CIC. Tusc. Qu. 1. i.