214044_The_Essa ... rd_Of_Montaigne_Vol_II.pdf - OUDL Home

300 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
Jtina lucernarum florentia lumina flammis,
Et duplices hominum fades, et corpora bina. 1
The lights of candels double darning then;
And faces twame, and bodies twaine of men
If our eares chance to he hindred hy any thing, or
that the passage of our hearing hee stopt, we receive
the sound otherwise then we were ordinarily wont
Such beasts as have hairie eares, or that in lieu of an
eare have but a little hole, doe not hy consequence
heare that we heare, and receive the sound other then
it is. We see at solemn shewes or in theatres that,
opposing any collourd glasse hetweene our eyes and
the torches light, whatsoever is in the roome seemes or
greene, or yellow, or red unto us, according to the
collour of the glasse.
Et vulgd faciunt id lutea russaque vela,
Etfei ruginea, cum magnis intenta theatris
Per malos volgata trabesque trementia pendent:
Namque ibi consessum caveat subter, et omnem
Scenai speciem, patrum matrumque deorumque
Inficiunt coguntque mofluxtare colore, 2
And yellow, russet, rustic curtaines worke this feate
in common sights abroade, where over skaftold's great
Stretched on masts, spred over beames, they hang still waving.
All the seates circuit there, and all the stages braving,
Of fathers, mothers, Gods, and all the circled showe
They double-dye and in their colours make to flowe.
It is likely that those beasts eyes which we see to he of
divers collours, produce the apparances of those bodies
they looke upon to be like their eyes. To judge the
senses operation, it were then necessary we were first
agreed with beasts, and then betweene our selves;
which we are not, but ever-and-anon disputing about
that one seeth, heareth, or tasteth something to be
other then indeed it is; and contend as much as about
any thing else, of the diversity of those images our
senses report unto us. A yong child heareth, seeth,
¹ LUCR. 1. iv. 452, 454. ² lb. 73.