214044_The_Essa ... rd_Of_Montaigne_Vol_II.pdf - OUDL Home

THE SECOND BOOKE 27
Bakers of our owne charge, we are punished in the
other world.
Proxima deinde tenent mcesti loca, qui sibi lethum
Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi
Projecere animas. 1
Next place they lamentable hold in hell,
Whose hand their death caused causelesse, (but not well)
And hating life did thence their soules expell.
There is more constancie in using the chaine that
holds us than in breaking the same ; and more triall
of stedfastnesse in Regulus than in Cato. It is indiscretion
and impatience that hastneth our way. No
accidents can force a man to turne his backe from lively
vertue: She seeketh out evils and sorrowes as her
nourishment. The threats of fell tyrants, tortures and
torments, executioners and torturers, doe animate and
quicken her,
Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus
Nigra feraci frondis in Algido
Per damna, per coedes, ab ipso
Ducit opes animumque/erro, 2
As holme-tTee doth with hard axe lopt
On hils with many holme-trees topt,
From losse, from cuttings it doth feelc,
Courage and store rise ev'n from Steele,
And as the other saith,
Non est ut putas virtus, pater,
Timere vitam, sed malts mgentibus
Obstafe, nee se veitere ac retro dare,³
Sir, 'tis not vertue, as you understand,
To feare life, but grosse mischiefe to withstand,
Not to retire, turne backe, at any hand.
Rebus in adver sis facile) est contemnere mortem.
Fortius illefacit, qui miser esse potest, 4
'Tis easie in crosse chance death to despise:
He that can wretched be, doth stronger rise.
It is the part of cowardlinesses and not of vertue, to
¹ VIEG. AEn, 1. vi. 434. ² HOR. 1. iv. Od. iv. 57.
³ SEN. Theb. act i. sC. 1. 4 MART. 1. xi. Epig. lvii. 15.