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266 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
Quod finxere timent, 1
Of that they stand in feare,
Which they in fancie beare,
as children will he afeard of their followes visage,
which themselves have besmeared and blackt. Quad
quicquam infoelicius sit homine, cui sua figmenta dominantur:
'As though any thing were more wretched
than man over whom his owne imaginations beare
sway and domineerc.' To honour him whom we have
made is farre from honouring him that hath made us.
Augustus had as many Temples as Iupiter, and served
with as much religion and opinion of miracles. The
Thracians, in requitall of the benefits they had received
of A^esilaus, came to tell him how they had
canonized him. 'Hath your Nation/ said he, 'the
power to make those whom it pleaseth Gods? Then
first (for example sake) make one of your selves, and
when I shall have seene what good he shall have
thereby, I will then thanke you for your offer. 1 Oh
sencelesse man, who cannot possibly make a worme,
and yet will make Gods by dozens. Listen to Trismegistus
when he praiseth our sufficiencie: For man
to finde out divine nature, and to make it, hath
surmounted the admiration of all admirable things.
Loe here arguments out of Philosophies schooles
itselfe.
Noscere cui Divos et call numina soli,
Aut soli nescire datum, 2
Only to whom heav'ns Deities to know,
Only to whom is giv'n, them not to know.
If God be, he is a living creature; if he be a living
creature, he hath sense; and if he have sense, he is
subject to corruption. If he be without a body, he is
without a soule, and consequently without action : and
if he have a body, he is corruptible. Is not this brave ?
We are incapable to have made the world, then is
there some more excellent nature that hath set her
¹ LUCAN. 1, i. 484, ² lb. 452.