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338 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
• helium 6 terra hospita porta*,
Bello armantur equi, helium hoec amenta minantur:
Sed tamen lidem olim curru succedere sueti
Quadrupedes, et froena jugo coneordia ferre.
Spas est pacis. 1
O stranger-harbring land, thou bringst ua warre;
Steeds serve for war;
These heards doe threaten jarre.
Yet horses erst were wont to draw our waines,
And harnest matches beare agreeing raincs,
Hope is hereby that wee
In peace shall well agree.
Solon being importuned not to shed vaine and booties
teares for the death of his sonne; c Thats the reason
(answered hee) I may more justly shed them, because
they are bootlesse and vaine.' Socrates, his wife, exasperated
her griefe by this circumstance. 'Good
Lord (said she) how unjustly doe these bad judges put
him to death.' 'What! wouldest thou rather they
should execute me justly?' replied he to her. It is a
fashion amongst us to have holes bored in our eares:
tho Greekes held it for a badge of bondage. We hide
'Our selves when we will enjoy our wives: the Indians
doe it in open view of all men. The Scithians were
wont to sacrifice strangers in their Temples, whereas in
•other places Churches are Sanctuaries for them
Indefuror mlgi, quod numina vianorum
Odit quisque locus, cum solos credat hahendos
Esse Deos quos ipse coht.*
The vnlgar hereupon doth rage, because
Each place doth hate their neighbours soveraigne lawcSj
And onely Gods doth deeme,
Those Gods, themselves esteeme.
I have heard it reported of a Judge who, when he
met with any sharp conflict betweene Bartolus and
Baldus, or with any case admitting contrarietie, was
wont to write in the margin of his book, ' A question
for a friend,' which is to say, that the truth was so
entangled and disputable that in such a case he might
1 Vina. AEn. 1. iii. 559, ² Juv. Sat. xv. 36.