Essays of Michel de Montaigne Part 64

This way of speaking in a Christian man has ever seemed to me very indiscreet and irreverent. "G.o.d cannot die; G.o.d cannot contradict himself; G.o.d cannot do this or that." I do not like to have the divine power so limited by the laws of men's mouths; and the idea which presents itself to us in those propositions ought to be more religiously and reverently expressed.

Our speaking has its failings and defects, as well as all the rest. Most of the occasions of disturbance in the world are grammatical ones; our suits only spring from disputes as to the interpretation of laws; and most wars proceed from the inability of ministers clearly to express the conventions and treaties of amity of princes. How many quarrels, and of how great importance, has the doubt of the meaning of this syllable, _hoc_,* created in the world? Let us take the clearest conclusion that logic itself

* Montaigne here refers to the controversies between the Catholics and Protestants about transubstantiation.

presents us withal; if you say, "It is fine weather," and that you say true, it is then fine weather. Is not this a very certain form of speaking? And yet it will deceive us; that it will do so, let us follow the example: If you say, "I lie," if you say true, you do lie. The art, the reason, and force of the conclusion of this, are the same with the other, and yet we are gravelled. The Pyrrhonian philosophers, I see, cannot express their general conception in any kind of speaking; for they would require a new language on purpose; ours is all formed of affirmative propositions, which are totally antarctic to them; insomuch that when they say "I doubt," they are presently taken by the throat, to make them confess that at least they know and are a.s.sured that they do doubt. By which means they have been compelled to shelter themselves under this medical comparison, without which their humour would be inexplicable: when they p.r.o.nounce, "I know not," or, "I doubt," they say that this proposition carries off itself with the rest, no more nor less than rhubarb, that drives out the ill humours, and carries itself off with them. This fancy will be more certainly understood by interrogation: "What do I know?" as I bear it with the emblem of a balance.

See what use they make of this irreverent way of speaking; in the present disputes about our religion, if you press its adversaries too hard, they will roundly tell you, "that it is not in the power of G.o.d to make it so, that his body should be in paradise and upon earth, and in several places at once." And see, too, what advantage the old scoffer made of this. "At least," says he, "it is no little consolation to man to see that G.o.d cannot do all things; for he cannot kill himself, though he would; which is the greatest privilege we have in our condition; he cannot make mortal immortal, nor revive the dead; nor make it so, that he who has lived has not; nor that he who has had honours has not had them; having no other right to the past than that of oblivion." And that the comparison of man to G.o.d may yet be made out by jocose examples: "He cannot order it so," says he, "that twice ten shall not be twenty."

This is what he says, and what a Christian ought to take heed shall not escape his lips. Whereas, on the contrary, it seems as if men studied this foolish daring of language, to reduce G.o.d to their own measure:--

Cras vel atra Nube polum, Pater, occupato, Vel sole puro; non tamen irritum Quodc.u.mque retro est efficiet, neque Diffinget infectumque reddet Quod fugiens semel hora vexit.

"To-morrow, let it s.h.i.+ne or rain, Yet cannot this the past make vain: Nor uncreate and render void That which was yesterday enjoyed."

When we say that the infinity of ages, as well past as to come, are but one instant with G.o.d; that his goodness, wisdom, and power are the same with his essence; our mouths speak it, but our understandings apprehend it not; and yet, such is our vain opinion of ourselves, that we must make the Divinity to pa.s.s through our sieve; and thence proceed all the dreams and errors with which the world abounds, whilst we reduce and weigh in our balance a thing so far above our poise. _Mirum quo procedat improbitas cordis humani, parvulo aliquo intritata successu._ "'Tis wonderful to what the wickedness of man's heart will proceed, if elevated with the least success." How magisterially and insolently does Epicurus reprove the Stoics, for maintaining that the truly good and happy being appertained only to G.o.d, and that the wise man had nothing but a shadow and resemblance of it! How temerariously have they bound G.o.d to destiny (a thing which, by my consent, none that bears the name of a Christian shall ever do again)! and Thales, Plato, and Pythagoras have enslaved him to necessity. This arrogance of attempting to discover G.o.d with our eyes has been the cause that an eminent person among us has attributed to the Divinity a corporal form; and is the reason of what happens to us every day, of attributing to G.o.d important events, by a particular a.s.signment. Because they weigh with us, they conclude that they also weigh with him, and that he has a more intent and vigilant regard to them than to others of less moment to us or of ordinary course: _Magna Dii curant, parva negligunt:_ "The G.o.ds are concerned at great matters, but slight the small." Listen to him; he will clear this to you by his reason: _Nec in regnis quidem reges omnia minima curant:_ "Neither indeed do kings in their administration take notice of all the least concerns." As if to that King of kings it were more or less to subvert a kingdom, or to move the leaf of a tree; or as if his providence acted after another manner in inclining the event of a battle than in the leap of a flea. The hand of his government is laid upon every thing after the same manner, with the same power and order; our interest does nothing towards it; our inclinations and measures sway nothing with him. _Deus ita artifex magnus in magnis, ut minor non sit in parvis:_ "G.o.d is so great an artificer in great things, that he is no less in the least" Our arrogancy sets this blasphemous comparison ever before us. Because our employments are a burden to us, Strato has courteously been pleased to exempt the G.o.ds from all offices, as their priests are; he makes nature produce and support all things; and with her weights and motions make up the several parts of the world, discharging human nature from the awe of divine judgments: _Quod beatum aeterumque sit, id nec habere negotii quicquam, nec exhibere alteri:_ "What is blessed and eternal has neither any business itself nor gives any to another." Nature will that in like things there should be a like relation. The infinite number of mortals, therefore, concludes a like number of immortals; the infinite things that kill and destroy presupposes as many that preserve and profit. As the souls of the G.o.ds, without tongue, eye, or ear, do every one of them feel amongst themselves what the other feels, and judge our thoughts; so the souls of men, when at liberty and loosed from the body, either by sleep or some ecstacy, divine, foretell, and see things, which, whilst joined to the body, they could not see. "Men," says St. Paul, "professing themselves to be wise, they become fools; and change the glory of the uncorruptible G.o.d into an image made like corruptible man." Do but take notice of the juggling in the ancient deifications. After the great and stately pomp of the funeral, so soon as the fire began to mount to the top of the pyramid, and to catch hold of the couch where the body lay, they at the same time turned out an eagle, which flying upward, signified that the soul went into Paradise. We have a thousand medals, and particularly of the worthy Faustina, where this eagle is represented carrying these deified souls to heaven with their heels upwards. 'Tis pity that we should fool ourselves with our own fopperies and inventions,

Quod finxere, timent,

"They fear their own inventions,"

like children who are frighted with the same face of their playfellow, that they themselves have smeared and s.m.u.tted. _Quasi quicquam infelicius sit homine, cui sua figmenta dominantur:_

"As if any thing could be more unhappy than man, who is insulted over by his own imagination." 'Tis far from honouring him who made us, to honour him that we have made. Augustus had more temples than Jupiter, served with as much religion and belief of miracles. The Thracians, in return of the benefits they had received from Agesilaus, came to bring him word that they had canonized him: "Has your nation," said he to them, "the power to make G.o.ds of whom they please? Pray first deify some one amongst yourselves, and when I shall see what advantage he has by it, I will thank you for your offer." Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making G.o.ds by dozens. Hear Trismegistus in praise of our sufficiency: "Of all the wonderful things, it surmounts all wonder that man could find out the divine nature and make it." And take here the arguments of the school of philosophy itself:--

Nosse cui divos et coli munina soli, Aut soli nescire, datum.

"To whom to know the deities of heaven, Or know he knows them not, alone 'tis given."

"If there is a G.o.d, he is a living creature; if he be a living creature, he has sense; and if he has sense, he is subject to corruption. If he be without a body he is without a soul, and consequently without action; and if he has a body, it is perishable." Is not here a triumph? we are incapable of having made the world; there must then be some more excellent nature that has put a hand to the work. It were a foolish and ridiculous arrogance to esteem ourselves the most perfect thing of the universe. There must then be something that is better, and that must be G.o.d. When you see a stately and stupendous edifice, though you do not know who is the owner of it, you would yet conclude it was not built for rats. And this divine structure, that we behold of the celestial palace, have we not reason to believe that it is the residence of some possessor, who is much greater than we? Is not the most supreme always the most worthy? but we are in the lowest form. Nothing without a soul and without reason can produce a living creature capable of reason. The world produces us, the world then has soul and reason. Every part of us is less than we. We are part of the world, the world therefore is endued with wisdom and reason, and that more abundantly than we. 'Tis a fine thing to have a great government; the government of the world then appertains to some happy nature. The stars do us no harm; they are then full of goodness. We have need of nourishment; then so have the G.o.ds also, and feed upon the vapours of the earth. Worldly goods are not goods to G.o.d; therefore they are not goods to us; offending and being offended are equally testimonies of imbecility; 'tis therefore folly to fear G.o.d. G.o.d is good by his nature; man by his industry, which is more.

The divine and human wisdom have no other distinction, but that the first is eternal; but duration is no accession to wisdom, therefore we are companions. We have life, reason, and liberty; we esteem goodness, charity, and justice; these qualities are then in him. In conclusion, building and destroying, the conditions of the Divinity, are forged by man, according as they relate to himself. What a pattern, and what a model! let us stretch, let us raise and swell human qualities as much as we please; puff up thyself, poor man, yet more and more, and more:--

Non, si tu ruperis, inquit.

"Not if thou burst," said he.

_Profecto non Deum, quern cogitare non possunt, sed semetip pro illo cogitantes, non ilium, sed seipsos, non illi, sed sibi comparant?_ "Certainly they do not imagine G.o.d, whom they cannot imagine; but they imagine themselves in his stead; they do not compare him, but themselves, not to him, but to themselves." In natural things the effects do but half relate to their causes. What's this to the purpose?

His condition is above the order of nature, too elevated, too remote, and too mighty, to permit itself to be bound and fettered by our conclusions. 'Tis not through ourselves that we arrive at that place; our ways lie too low. We are no nearer heaven on the top of Mount Cenis than at the bottom of the sea; take the distance with your astrolabe.

They debase G.o.d even to the carnal knowledge of women, to so many times, and so many generations. Paulina, the wife of Satuminus, a matron of great reputation at Rome, thinking she lay with the G.o.d Serapis, found herself in the arms of an amoroso of hers, through the panderism of the priests of his temple. Varro, the most subtle and most learned of all the Latin authors, in his book of theology, writes, that the s.e.xton of Hercules's temple, throwing dice with one hand for himself, and with the other for Hercules, played after that manner with him for a supper and a wench; if he won, at the expense of the offerings; if he lost, at his own. The s.e.xton lost, and paid the supper and the wench. Her name was Laurentina, who saw by night this G.o.d in her arms, who moreover told her, that the first she met the next day, should give her a heavenly reward; which proved to be Taruncius, a rich young man, who took her home to his house, and in time left her his inheritrix. She, in her turn, thinking to do a thing that would be pleasing to the G.o.d, left the people of Rome heirs to her; and therefore had divine honours attributed to her. As if it had not been sufficient that Plato was originally descended from the G.o.ds by a double line, and that he had Neptune for the common father of his race, it was certainly believed at Athens, that Aristo, having a mind to enjoy the fair Perictione, could not, and was warned by the G.o.d Apollo, in a dream, to leave her unpolluted and untouched, till she should first be brought to bed. These were the father and mother of Plato. How many ridiculous stories are there of like cuckoldings, committed by the G.o.ds against poor mortal men! And how many husbands injuriously scandaled in favour of the children! In the Mahometan religion there are Merlins enough found by the belief of the people; that is to say, children without fathers, spiritual, divinely conceived in the wombs of virgins, and carry names that signify so much in their language.

We are to observe that to every thing nothing is more dear and estimable than its being (the lion, the eagle the dolphin, prize nothing above their own kind); and that every thing a.s.similates the qualities of all other things to its own proper qualities, which we may indeed extend or contract, but that's all; for beyond that relation and principle our imagination cannot go, can guess at nothing else, nor possibly go out thence, nor stretch beyond it; whence spring these ancient conclusions: of all forms the most beautiful is that of man; therefore G.o.d must be of that form. No one can be happy without virtue, nor virtue be without reason, and reason cannot inhabit anywhere but in a human shape; G.o.d is therefore clothed in a human figure. _Ita est informatum et antic.i.p.atum mentibus nostris, ut homini, quum de Deo cogitet, forma occurrat hu-mana._ "It is so imprinted in our minds, and the fancy is so prepossessed with it, that when a man thinks of G.o.d, a human figure ever presents itself to the imagination." Therefore it was that Xenophanes pleasantly said, "That if beasts frame any G.o.ds to themselves, as 'tis likely they do, they make them certainly such as themselves are, and glorify themselves in it, as we do. For why may not a goose say thus; "All the parts of the universe I have an interest in; the earth serves me to walk upon; the sun to light me; the stars have their influence upon me; I have such an advantage by the winds and such by the waters; there is nothing that yon heavenly roof looks upon so favourably as me; I am the darling of nature! Is it not man that keeps, lodges, and serves me? 'Tis for me that he both sows and grinds; if he eats me he does the same by his fellow-men, and so do I the worms that kill and devour him."

As much might be said by a crane, and with greater confidence, upon the account of the liberty of his flight, and the possession of that high and beautiful region. _Tam blanda conciliatrix, et tam sui est lena ipsa natura._ "So flattering and wheedling a bawd is nature to herself."

Now by the same consequence, the destinies are then for us; for us the world; it s.h.i.+nes it thunders for us; creator and creatures, all are for us; ''tis the mark and point to which the universality of things aims.

Look into the records that philosophy has kept for two thousand years and more, of the affairs of heaven; the G.o.ds all that while have neither acted nor spoken but for man. She does not allow them any other consultation or occupation. See them here against us in war:--

Domitosque Herculea manu Telluris juvenes, unde periculum Fulgens contre mu it domus Saturai veteris.

"The brawny sons of earth, subdu'd by hand Of Hercules on the Phlegraean strand, Where the rude shock did such an uproar make, As made old Saturn's sparkling palace shake."

And here you shall see them partic.i.p.ate of our troubles, to make a return for our having so often shared in theirs:--

Neptunus muros, magnoque emota tridenti Fundamenta quat.i.t, totamque a sedibus urbem Emit: hie Juno Scaeas saevissima portas Prima tenet.

"Amidst that smother Neptune holds his place, Below the walls' foundation drives his mace, And heaves the city from its solid base.

See where in arms the cruel Juno stands, Full in the Scaean gate."

The Caunians, jealous of the authority of their own proper G.o.ds, armed themselves on the days of their devotion, and through the whole of their precincts ran cutting and slas.h.i.+ng the air with their swords, by that means to drive away and banish all foreign G.o.ds out of their territory.

Their powers are limited according that the plague, that the scurf, that the phthisic; one cures one sort of itch, another another: _Adeo minimis etiam rebus prava religio inserit Deos?_ "At such a rate does false religion create G.o.ds for the most contemptible uses." This one makes grapes grow, that onions; this has the presidence over lechery, that over merchandise; for every sort of artisan a G.o.d; this has his province and reputation in the east; that his in the west:--

"Here lay her armour, here her chariot stood."

O sancte Apollo, qui umbilic.u.m certum terrarum obtines!

"O sacred Phoebus, who with glorious ray, From the earth's centre, dost thy light display."

Pallada Cecropidae, Minola Creta Dianam, Vulcanum tellus Hypsipylea colit, Junonem Sparte, Pelopeladesque Mycenae; Pinigerum Fauni Maenalis ora caput; Mars Latio venerandus.

"Th' Athenians Pallas, Cynthia Crete adore, Vulcan is wors.h.i.+pped on the Lemnian sh.o.r.e.

Proud Juno's altars are by Spartans fed, Th' Arcadians wors.h.i.+p Faunus, and 'tis said To Mars, by Italy, is homage paid."

to our necessity; this cures horses, that men,

Hic illius arma, Hic currus fuit.

This has only one town or family in his possession; that lives alone; that in company, either voluntary or upon necessity:--

Junctaque sunt magno templa nepotis avo.

"And temples to the nephew joined are, To those were reared to the great-grandfather."