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362 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
Vt cibus in membra atque artus cum diditur omnes,
Disperit, atque'aliam naturam suffiat ex se. 1
As meate distributed into the members, dies,
Another nature yet it perishing supplies.
The moistnesse which the roote of a tree suckes becomes
a trunke, a leafe, and fruite: And the aire being but
one, applied unto a trumpet, becommeth diverse in a
thousand sorts of sounds. Is it our senses (say I) who
likewise fashion of diverse qualities those subjects, or
whether they have them so and such ? And upon this
doubt, what may wee conclude of their true essence ?
Moreover, since the accidents of sicknesse, of madnesse,
or of sleepe, make things appeare other unto us then
they seeme unto the healthie, unto the wise, and to
the waking: is it not likely that our right seate and
naturall humors have also wherewith to give a being
unto things, having reference unto their condition,
and to appropriate them to it selfe, as doe inordinate
humors; and our health as capable to give them his
visage as sicknesse ? Why hath not the temperate man
some forme of the objects relative unto himselfe as the
intemperate: and shall not he likewise imprint his
character in them? The distasted impute wallowishnes
unto wine: the healthie, good taste; and the
thirsty, brisknesse, rellish, and dellicacie. Now our
condition appropriating things unto it selfe, and transforming
them to its owne humour: wee know no more
how things are in sooth and truth; for nothing comes
unto us but falsified and altered by our senses. Where
the compasse, the quadrant, or the ruler are crooked,
all proportions drawne by them, and all the buildings
erectea by their measure, are also necessarily defective
and imperfect. The uncertaintie of our senses yeelds
what ever they produce, also uncertaine.
Denique tit in fabrica, si prava est regula prima,
Normatme si fallax rectis regionibus exit,
Et libella aliqud si ex parte claudicat hilum,
Omnia mendosi fieri, atque obstipa neccssum est,
¹ LUCR. 1. iii. 728,