214044_The_Essa ... rd_Of_Montaigne_Vol_II.pdf - OUDL Home

314 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
venerable senate of the Areopagites was wont to judge
and sentence by night, for feare the sight of the suters
might corrupt justice. The ayre it selfe, and the
clearenes of the firmament, doth forbode us some
change and alteration of weather, as saith that Greek
verse in Cicero:
Tales sunt hominum mentes, quail pater ipse
Iupiter auetifera lustravit lampade terras ¹
Such are mens mindes, as with increasefull light
Our father Jove survaies the world in sight
It is not onely fevers, drinkes and great accidents,
that over-whelme our judgement: the least tilings in
the world will turne it topsie-turvie. And although
we feele it not, it is not to bee doubted, if a continuall
ague may in the end suppresse our mind, a tertian will
also (according to her measure and proportion) breed
some alteration in it. If an Apoplexie doth altogether
stupifie and extinguish the sight of our understanding,
it is not to be doubted but a cold and rheum will likewise
dazle the same. And by consequence, hardly
shall a man in all his life find one houre wherein our
judgement may alwaies be found in his right byase,
our body being subject to so many continuall alterations,
and stuft with so divers sorts of ginnes and
motions, that, giving credit to Physitians, it is very
hard to find one in perfect plight, and that doth not
alwaies mistake his marke and shute wide. As for the
rest, this disease is not so easily discovered, except it
be altogether extreame and remedilesse ; forasmuch as
reason marcheth ever crooked, halting and broken-hipt;
and with falshood as with truth; and therefore it is
very hard to discover her mistaking and disorder. I
alwaies call reason that apparance or shew of discourses
which every man deviseth or forgeth in himselfe : that
reason, of whose condition there may be a hundred,
one contrary to another, about one selfe same subject:
it is an instrument of lead and wax, stretching, pliable,
and that may be fitted to all byases and squared to all
¹ CIC. ex Incert.