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268 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
non si te ruperis, inquit. 1
Swell till you breake, you shall not be,
Equall to that great one, quoth he,
Profecto non Deum, quern cogitare non possunt, sed
semetipsos pro illo cogitantes, non ilium, sed seipsos, non
illi, sed sibi comparant, ' Of a truth, they conceiting
not God, whom they cannot conceive, but themselves
instead of God, doe not compare him, but themselves,
not to him, but themselves.' In naturall things the
effects doe but halfe referre their causes. What this ?
It is above natures order, its condition is too high, too
far out of reach, and overswaying to endure, that our
conclusions should seize upon or fetter the same. It
is not by our meanes we reach unto it, this traine is
too low. We are no nerer heaven on the top of Sina
mount than in the bottome of the deepest sea: Consider
of it, that you may see with your Astrolabe.
They bring God even to the carnall acquaintance of
women, to a prefixed number of times, and to how
many generations. Paulina, wife unto Saturnius, a
matron of great reputation in Rome, supposing to lye
with the God Serapis, by the maquerelage of the
priests of that Temple, found herselfe in the armes of
a wanton lover of hers. Varro, the most subtill and
wisest Latine Author, in his bookes of divinitie writeth
that Hercules his Sextaine, with one hand casting lots
for himselfe, and with the other for Hercules, gaged
a supper and a wench against him : if he won, at the
charge of his offerings, but if he lost, at his owne cost.
He lost, and paid for a supper and a wench: her name
was Laurentina: who by the night saw that God in
her armes, saying moreover unto her that the next
day the first man she met withall should heavenly pay
her her wages. It was fortuned to be one Taruncius,
a very rich young man, who tooke her home with him,
and in time left her absolute heire of all he had. And
she, when it came to her turne, hoping to doe that
God some acceptable service, left the Romane people
1 HOR. Serm. 1. ii. Sat. iii. 324.