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252 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
appertaine ; for we are built of two principall essential
parts, the separation of which is the death and
consummation of our being.
Inter enim jecta est vitaipausa vageque
Deerrarunt passim motus ab sensibus omnes. 1
A pause of life is interposed; from sense
Alt motions straied are, far wandring thence.
We doe not say that man suffereth when the wormes
gnaw his body and limbs whereby he lived, and that
the earth consumeth them:
Et nihil hoc ad nos, qui coitu conjugioque
Corporis atque antma consistimus unxter apti.²
This nought concerns us, who consist of union
Of minde and body joyn'd in meet communion.
Moreover, upon what ground of their justice can
the Gods reward man and be thankfull unto him after
his death, for his good and vertuous actions, since
themselves addressed and bred them in him? And
wherefore are they offended and revenge his vicious
deeds, when themselves have created him with so
defective a condition, and that but with one twinkling
of their will they may hinder him from sinning?
Might not Epicurus with some shew of humane reason
object that unto Plato, if he did not often shrowd
himselfe under this sentence, that it is impossible by
mortall nature to establish any certainty of the immortall?
Shee is ever straying, but especially when
she medleth with divine matters. Who feeles it more
evidently than we? For, although we have ascribed
unto her assured and infallible principles, albeit wee
enlighten her steps with the holy lampe of that truth
which God hath oeen pleased to impart unto us, we
notwithstanding see daily, how little soever she stray
from the ordinary path, and that she start or stragle
¹ LUCR. 1. iii. 903. ² Ib. 888.