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258 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
selfe unto that whereto thou art subject, hut tie not
him: he is neither thy companion, nor thy brother,
nor thy fellow citizen, nor thy copesmate. If he in any
sort have communicated himselfe unto thee, it is not to
debase himselfe, or stoope to thy smalnesse, nor to give
thee the controulment of his power. Mans body cannot
soare up into the clouds; this is for thee. The
sunne uncessantly goeth his ordinary course : the
bounds of the seas and of the earth cannot*be confounded:
the water is ever fleeting, wavering, and
without firmnesse: a wall without breach or flaw, impenetrable
unto a solid body : man cannot preserve his
fife amidst the flames, he cannot corporally be both in
heaven and on earth, and in a thousand places together
and at once. It is for thee that he hath made these
rules : it is thou they take hold of. He hath testified
unto Christians that when ever it hath pleased him he
hath out gone them all. And in truth, omnipotent as
he is, wherefore should he have restrained his forces
unto a limited measure ? In favour of whom should he
have renounced his privilege ? Thy reason hath in no
one other thing more likely-hood and foundation, than
in that which perswadeth thee a plurality of words.
Terramque et solem, lunam, mare, eastern quce sunt,
Non es»e unica, sed numero magis mnumei all. 1
The enrth, the sunne, the moone, the sea and all
In number nutnberlesse, not one they call.
The famousest wits of former ages have beleeved it,
yea and some of our moderne, as forced thereunto by
the apparance of humane reason. For as much as
whatsoever we see in this vast worlds frame, there is
no one thing alone, single and one.
cum in summa res nulla sit una,
Unka qucs gignatur, et unica solaquc crescat: ²
Whereas in gencrall Bumme, nothing is one,
To be bred only one, grow only one.
And that all severall kindes are multiplied in some
¹ LUCR. 1. ii. 1094. ² lb. 1086.