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276 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
women, when their naturall teeth faile them, use some
of yuorie, and in stead of a true beautie, or lively colour,
lay on some artificiall hew; and as they make trunk
sleeves of wyre, and whale-bone bodies, backes of
lathes, and stiffe bombasted verdugals, and to the openview
of all men paint and embellish themselves with
counterfeit and borrowed beauties ; so doth learning
(and our law hath, as some say, certaine lawfull fictions,
on which it groundeth the truth of justice) which in
liew of currant payment and presupposition, delivereth
us those things, which she her selfe teacheth us to be
meere inventions : for these Epicycles Excentriques, and
Concentriques, which Astrology useth to direct the state
and motions of her starres, she giveth them unto us, as
the best she could ever invent, to fit and sute unto this
subject: as in all things else, Philosophy presenteth
unto us, not that which is or she beleeveth, but what
she inventeth as having most apparence, likelihood, or
comelinesse. Plato upon the discourse of our bodiesestate
and of that of beasts : that what we have said
is true we would be assured of it had we but the confirmation
of some oracle to continue it. This only we
warrant, that it is the likeliest we could say. It is not
to heaven alone that she sendeth her cordages, her
engines, and her wheeles. Let us but somewhat consider
what she saith of our selves and of our contexture.
There is no more retrogradation, trepidation, augmentation,
recoyling, and violence in the starres and celestiall
bodies than they have fained and devised in this poor
seeley little body of man. Verily they have thence had
reason to name it Microcosmos, or little world, so many
severall parts and visages have they imploied to fashion
and frame the same. To accommodate the motions
which they see in man, the divers functions and faculties
that we feel in our selves. Into how many severall
parts have they divided our soule? Into how many
seats have they placed her ? Into how many orders,
stages, and stations have they divided this wretched
man, beside the naturall and perceptible ? and to how
many distinct offices and vocations? They make a