214044_The_Essa ... rd_Of_Montaigne_Vol_II.pdf - OUDL Home

290 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
—— Deum namque ire per omnet
Terrasque tractusque maris coelumque prqfundum :
Mine pecudetf armenta, viros, genus omneferarum,
Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas,
Scilicet hue reddi delude, ac resoluta referri
Omnia: nee morti esse locum, 1
For God through all the earth to passe is found,
Through all Sea currents, through the heav'n profound.
Here hence men, heards, and all wilde beasts that are,
Short life in birth each to themselves doe share.
All things resolved to this point restor'd
Returne, nor any place to death affoord.
Others, that they did but reconjoyne and fasten themselves
to it againe : others, that they were produced by
the divine substance : others, by the angels, of fire and
aire : some from the beginning of the world, and some
even at the time of need : others make them to descend
from the round of the moone, and that they returne to
it againe. The common sort of antiquitie, that they
are begotten from father to sonne, after the same
manner and production that all other naturall thing?,
are ; arguing so by the resemblances which are between'*
fathers and children.
Instlllata patt is virtus tibi,²
Thy Fathers vertues be
Instilled into thee.
Fortes cicanturfurtibus et bonis,³
Of valiant Sires and good,
There comes a valiant brood.
And that from fathers we see descend unto children,
not only the marks of their bodies, but also a resemblance
of humours, of complexions, and inclinations of
the soule.
Denique cur acrum violentia triste Leonnm
Seminium sequitur, dolus Vulptbus, etfuga Cervis
Apatrtbus datur, et patrius pavor incdat Aitus,
Si nan ceita suo quia semxne seminioque
Vis animt par iter crescit cum corpote toto ? 4
¹ VIRO. Geora. 1. iv. 222. ² HOR. Car. 1. iv. 0d. iv. 29.
³ Luca. 1. iii. 766. 4 lb. 771.