214044_The_Essa ... rd_Of_Montaigne_Vol_II.pdf - OUDL Home

THE SECOND BOOKE 253
out of the way traced and measured out by the Church,
how soone she loseth, entangleth and cortfoundeth
her selfe ; turning, tossing and floating up and downe
in this vast, troublesome and tempestuous sea of mans
opinions without restraint or scope. So soone as she
loseth this high and common way, shee divideth and
scattereth herselfe a thousand diverse ways. Man can
be no other than he is, nor imagine but according to
his capacity. It is greater presumption (saith Plutarch)
in them that are but men, to attempt to reason and
discourse of Gods and of demi-Gods, than in a man
meerly ignorant of musicke to judge of those that
sing; or for a man that was never in warres to dispute
of Armes and warre, presuming by some light conjecture
to comprehend the effects of an art altogether
beyond his skill. As I thinke, Antiquity imagined it
did something for divine Majesty when shee compared
the same unto man, attiring her with his faculties,
and enriching her with his strange humours and most
shamefull necessities: offering her some of our cates
to feed upon, and some of our dances, mummeries,
and enterludes to make her merry, with our clothes
to apparrell her, and our houses to lodge her, cherishing
her with the sweet odors of incense, and sounds of
musicke, adorning her with garlands and flowers, and
to draw her to our vicious passion, to flatter her justice
with an inhuman revenge, gladding her with the ruine
and dissipation of things created and preserved by her.
As Tiberius Sempronius, who for a sacrifice to Vulcan
caused the rich spoiles and armes which he had gotten
of his enemies in Sardinia to be burned : And Paulus
AEmilius, those he had obtained in Macedonia, to
Mars and Minerva. And Alexander, comming to the
Ocean of India, cast in favour of Thetis many great
rich vessels of gold into the Sea, replenishing, moreover,
her Altars with a butcherly slaughter, not onely
of innocent beasts, but of men, as diverse Nations,
and amongst the rest, ours were wont to doe. And I
thinke none hath beene exempted from shewing the
like Essayes.