Essays — Michel de Montaigne

Essays

Michel de Montaigne · Licence: Public domain · Source

• By which examples we are wont to conclude, and with some reason, that events, especially in war, for the most part depend upon fortune, who will not be governed by nor submit unto human reasons and prudence, according to the poet: CHAPTER XLVII · ¶1525
• "Et male consultis pretium est: prudentia fallit Nec fortune probat causas, sequiturque merentes, Sed vaga per cunctos nullo discrimine fertur. Scilicet est aliud, quod nos cogatque regatque Majus, et in proprias ducat mortalia leges." CHAPTER XLVII · ¶1526
• Edited by William Carew Hazlitt CHAPTER XLVII · ¶1533
• XLVIII. Of war-horses, or destriers. XLIX. Of ancient customs. L. Of Democritus and Heraclitus. LI. Of the vanity of words. LII. Of the parsimony of the Ancients. LIII. Of a saying of Caesar. LIV. Of vain subtleties. LV. Of smells. LVI. Of prayers. LVII. Of age. CHAPTER XLVII · ¶1536
• "Quibus, desultorum in modum, binos trahentibus equos, inter acerrimam saepe pugnam, in recentem equum, ex fesso, armatis transultare mos erat: tanta velocitas ipsis, tamque docile equorum genus." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1539
• I do not willingly alight when I am once on horseback, for it is the place where, whether well or sick, I find myself most at ease. Plato recommends it for health, as also Pliny says it is good for the stomach and the joints. Let us go further into this matter since here we are. CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1544
• There are several examples in the Roman history (and Suetonius more particularly observes it of Caesar) of captains who, on pressing occasions, commanded their cavalry to alight, both by that means to take from them all hopes of flight, as also for the advantage they hoped in this sort of fight. CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1546
• "Quo baud dubie superat Romanus," CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1547
• says Livy. And so the first thing they did to prevent the mutinies and insurrections of nations of late conquest was to take from them their arms and horses, and therefore it is that we so often meet in Caesar: CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1549
• "Arma proferri, jumenta produci, obsides dari jubet." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1550
• The Grand Signior to this day suffers not a Christian or a Jew to keep a horse of his own throughout his empire. CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1552
• "Caedebant pariter, pariterque ruebant Victores victique; neque his fuga nota, neque illis." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1554
• Their battles were much better disputed. Nowadays there are nothing but routs: CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1556
• "Primus clamor atque impetus rem decernit." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1557
• "Et, quo ferre velint, permittere vulnera ventis Ensis habet vires; et gens quaecumque virorum est, Bella gerit gladiis." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1560
• "Magnum stridens contorta Phalarica venit, Fulminis acta modo." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1563
• Their pieces of battery had not only the execution but the thunder of our cannon also: CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1567
• "Ad ictus moenium cum terribili sonitu editos, pavor et trepidatio cepit." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1568
• The Gauls, our kinsmen in Asia, abominated these treacherous missile arms, it being their use to fight, with greater bravery, hand to hand: CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1570
• "Et gens, quae nudo residens Massylia dorso, Ora levi flectit, fraenorum nescia, virga." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1575
• "Et Numidae infraeni cingunt." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1577
• "Equi sine fraenis, deformis ipse cursus, rigida cervice et extento capite currentium." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1579
• "Venit et epoto Sarmata pastus equo." CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1583
• Those of Crete, being besieged by Metellus, were in so great necessity for drink that they were fain to quench their thirst with their horses urine.--[Val. Max., vii. 6, ext. 1.] CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1585
• Croesus, marching his army through certain waste lands near Sardis, met with an infinite number of serpents, which the horses devoured with great appetite, and which Herodotus says was a prodigy of ominous portent to his affairs. CHAPTER XLVIII · ¶1592
• I wish to muster up here some old customs that I have in memory, some of them the same with ours, the others different, to the end that, bearing in mind this continual variation of human things, we may have our judgment more clearly and firmly settled. CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1599
• The thing in use amongst us of fighting with rapier and cloak was in practice amongst the Romans also: CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1600
• "Sinistras sagis involvunt, gladiosque distringunt," CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1601
• says Caesar; and he observes a vicious custom of our nation, that continues yet amongst us, which is to stop passengers we meet upon the road, to compel them to give an account who they are, and to take it for an affront and just cause of quarrel if they refuse to do it. CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1603
• "Quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod brachia veilis," CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1605
• though they had ointments proper for that purpose: CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1607
• "Psilotro nitet, aut acids latet oblita creta." CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1608
• They delighted to lie soft, and alleged it as a great testimony of hardiness to lie upon a mattress. They ate lying upon beds, much after the manner of the Turks in this age: CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1610
• "Inde thoro pater AEneas sic orsus ab alto." CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1611
• "Gratatusque darem cum dulcibus oscula verbis." CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1614
• "At tibi nil faciam; sed Iota mentula lana." CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1617
• They had in the streets of Rome vessels and little tubs for passengers to urine in: CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1618
• "Pusi saepe lacum propter se, ac dolia curta. Somno devincti, credunt extollere vestem." CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1619
• "Has vobis epulas habete, lauti Nos offendimur ambulante caena." CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1622
• The ladies, in their baths, made no scruple of admitting men amongst them, and moreover made use of their serving-men to rub and anoint them: CHAPTER XLIX · ¶1626

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