214044_The_Essa ... rd_Of_Montaigne_Vol_II.pdf - OUDL Home

THE SECOND BOOKE 593-
Alcon look't yester-day on carved love.
love, though of marble, feelea the leeches force,
From his old church to day made to remoove,
Though god and stone, hee's carried like a corse.
And the other:
Lotus nobiscum est Kilaris, ccenavit et idem,
Inventus mane est mortuus Androgoras,
Tarn subitce mortis causam Faustine requiris ?
Insomnis medicum viderat Hermocratem. 1
Androgoras in health bath'd over night with us,
And merry supt, but in the morne stark e dead was found.
Of his so sudden death the cause shall I discusse ?
Hermocrates the leech he saw in sleepe unsound.
Upon which I will tell you two pretty stories. The
Baron of Caupene in Chalosse and I have both in
common the right of the patronage of a benefice, which
is of a very large precinct, situated at the feet of our
mountaines named Lahontan. It is with the inhabitants
of that corner as it is said to be with those of the
valley of Angrougne. They lead a kind of peculiar
life; their attire and their customes apart and severall.
They were directed and governed by certaine particular
policies and customes, received by tradition from father
to child: whereto, without other lawes or compulsion
except the reverence and awe of their custome and use,
they awefully tied and bound themselves. This petty
state had from all antiquity continued in so happy a
condition that no neighbouring severe judge had ever
beene troubled to enquire of their life and affaires, nor
was ever atturny or petty-fogging lawyer called for to
give them advice or counsel; nor stranger sought unto
to determine their quarrels or decide contentions;
neither were ever beggars seen among them. They
alwaies avoyded commerce and shunned alliances with
the other world, lest they should alter the purity of
their orders and policy, until such time (as they say)
that one amongst them in their fathers daies, having a
mind puft up with a noble ambition to bring his name
1 MART. 1. vi. Epig. liii.
II. 2 Q