IL n’y a raison qui n’en aye vne contraire, dit le plus sage party des philosophes. Ie remaschois tantost ce beau mot, qu’vn ancien allegue pour le mespris de la vie: Nul bien nous peut apporter plaisir, si ce n’est celuy, à la perte duquel nous sommes preparez: In æquo est dolor amissæ rei, et timor amittendæ. Voulant gaigner par là, que la fruition de la vie ne nous peut estre vrayement plaisante, si nous sommes en crainte de la perdre. Il se pourroit toutesfois dire au rebours, que nous serrons et embrassons ce bien, d’autant plus estroit, et auecques plus d’affection, que nous le voyons nous estre moins seur, et craignons qu’il nous soit osté.
There is no reason that does not have its contrary, says the wisest school of philosophers. I was just now chewing over that fine saying which an ancient cites in contempt of life: no good can bring us pleasure except the one we are prepared to lose. The pain of losing a thing and the fear of losing it are equal. He means to show by this that the enjoyment of life cannot be truly pleasant to us if we are afraid of losing it. Yet it might be said, on the contrary, that we clasp and embrace this good all the more tightly and fondly the less secure we see it to be, and the more we fear it may be taken from us.
Car il se sent euidemment, comme le feu se picque à l’assistance du froid, que nostre volonté s’aiguise aussi par le contraste: Si numquam Danaen habuisset ahenea turris, / Non esset Danae de Ioue facta parens: et qu’il n’est rien naturellement si contraire à nostre goust que la satieté, qui vient de l’aisance: ny rien qui l’aiguise tant que la rareté et difficulté. Omnium rerum voluptas ipso quo debet fugare periculo crescit. Galla, nega; satiatur amor, nisi gaudia torquent.
For it is plainly felt that, just as fire is quickened by the presence of cold, our will too is sharpened by opposition: If the bronze tower had never held Danaë, / Danaë would never have been made a mother by Jupiter; and that nothing is naturally so contrary to our taste as the satiety that comes from ease, nor anything that sharpens it so much as rarity and difficulty. In all things, pleasure grows with the very danger that ought to make us shun it. Galla, say no: love is soon sated unless its joys are torture.
Pour tenir l’amour en haleine, Lycurgue ordonna que les mariez de Lacedemone ne se pourroient prattiquer qu’à la desrobée, et que ce seroit pareille honte de les rencontrer couchés ensemble qu’auecques d’autres. La difficulté des assignations, le danger des surprises, la honte du lendemain, Et languor, et silentium, / Et latere petitus imo spiritus, c’est ce qui donne pointe à la sauce. Combien de ieux tres-lasciuement plaisants, naissent de l’honneste et vergongneuse maniere de parler des ouurages de l’Amour? La volupté mesme cherche à s’irriter par la douleur. Elle est bien plus sucrée, quand elle cuit, et quand elle escorche. La courtisane Flora disoit n’auoir iamais couché auec Pompeius, qu’elle ne luy eust faict porter les merques de ses morsures.
To keep love on its toes, Lycurgus decreed that married couples in Sparta could have relations only by stealth, and that it would be as shameful to find them in bed together as with others. The difficulty of assignations, the danger of being caught, the shame of the next morning, And languor, and silence, / And sighs drawn from deep within—that is what gives the sauce its spice. How many very lasciviously amusing games arise from the decent and bashful way of speaking about the works of Love? Pleasure itself seeks to be stimulated by pain. It is much sweeter when it smarts and when it chafes the skin. The courtesan Flora said she had never slept with Pompey without making him carry the marks of her bites.
Quod petiere, premunt arctè, faciúntque dolorem / Corporis, et dentes inlidunt sæpe labellis: / Et stimuli subsunt, qui instigant lædere id ipsum / Quodcunque est, rabies vnde illæ germina surgunt.
What they have sought they squeeze tight, and cause pain / To the body, and often drive their teeth into the lips; / And there are goads beneath that drive them to hurt that very thing, / Whatever it is, from which those seeds of frenzy spring.
Il en va ainsi par tout: la difficulté donne prix aux choses. Ceux de la Marque d’Ancone font plus volontiers leurs vœuz à Sainct Iaques, et ceux de Galice à nostre Dame de Lorete: on fait au Liege grande feste des bains de Luques, et en la Toscane de ceux d’Aspa: il ne se voit guere de Romains en l’escole de l’escrime à Rome, qui est pleine de François. Ce grand Caton se trouua aussi bien que nous, desgousté de sa femme tant qu’elle fut sienne, et la desira quand elle fut à vn autre. I’ay chassé au haras vn vieil cheual, duquel à la senteur des iuments, on ne pouuoit venir à bout.
It is the same everywhere: difficulty gives things their value. People from the March of Ancona would rather make their vows to Saint James, and people from Galicia to Our Lady of Loreto. In Liège they make a great fuss over the baths of Lucca, and in Tuscany over those of Spa. Hardly any Romans are to be seen in the fencing school at Rome, which is full of Frenchmen. The great Cato, too, just like us, was tired of his wife as long as she was his, and desired her when she belonged to another. I have put out to stud an old horse that could not be controlled at the scent of mares.
La facilité l’a incontinent saoulé enuers les siennes: mais enuers les estrangeres et la premiere qui passe le long de son pastis, il reuient à ses importuns hannissements, et à ses chaleurs furieuses comme deuant. Nostre appetit mesprise et outrepasse ce qui luy est en main, pour courir apres ce qu’il n’a pas. Transuolat in medio posita, et fugientia captat. Nous defendre quelque chose, c’est nous en donner enuie. Nisi tu seruare puellam / Incipis, incipiet desinere esse mea. Nous l’abandonner tout à faict, c’est nous en engendrer mespris. La faute et l’abondance retombent en mesme inconuenient: Tibi quod superest, mihi quod defit, dolet. Le desir et la iouyssance nous mettent pareillement en peine.
Ease soon sated him with his own mares; but with strange ones, and the first that passes along his pasture, he goes back to his tiresome neighing and his furious heats as before. Our appetite scorns and passes over what it has in hand, to run after what it does not have. He flies past what lies in reach and chases what runs away. To forbid us something is to make us want it. Unless you begin to guard your girl, / She will begin to stop being mine. To hand it over to us entirely is to breed contempt for it in us. Lack and abundance come to the same trouble: You suffer from what you have too much of, I from what I lack. Desire and enjoyment torment us equally.
La rigueur des maistresses est ennuyeuse, mais l’aisance et la facilité l’est, à vray dire, encores plus, d’autant que le mescontentement et la cholere naissent de l’estimation, en quoy nous auons la chose desirée, aiguisent l’amour, et le reschauffent: mais la satieté engendre le dégoust: c’est vne passion mousse, hebetée, lasse, et endormie. Si qua volet regnare diu, contemnat amantem, / Contemnite amantes, / Sic hodie veniet, si qua negauit heri.
The harshness of mistresses is painful; but ease and compliance are, to tell the truth, even more so. For discontent and anger arise from the high value we set on the thing desired; they sharpen love and rekindle it. Satiety, by contrast, breeds distaste: it is a blunt passion, dulled, weary, and asleep. If a woman wants to reign long, let her scorn her lover. / Scorn your lovers, / And she who refused yesterday will come today.
Pourquoy inuenta Popæa de masquer les beautez de son visage, que pour les rencherir à ses amants? Pourquoy a lon voilé iusques au dessoubs des talons ces beautez, que chacun desire montrer, que chacun desire voir? Pourquoy couurent elles de tant d’empeschemens, les vns sur les autres, les parties, où loge principallement nostre desir et le leur? Et à quoy seruent ces gros bastions, dequoy les nostres viennent d’armer leurs flancs, qu’à leurrer nostre appetit, et nous attirer à elles en nous esloignant? Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit antè videri. / Interdum tunica duxit operta moram. A quoy sert l’art de cette honte virginalle?
Why did Poppaea think of masking the beauties of her face, if not to make them dearer to her lovers? Why have those beauties that everyone wishes to show, that everyone wishes to see, been veiled right down below the heels? Why do women cover with so many obstacles, one on top of another, the parts where our desire and theirs chiefly dwell? And what are those great bastions with which our women have lately taken to arming their hips for, if not to lure our appetite and draw us to them by keeping us at a distance? And she flees to the willows, and hopes first to be seen. / Sometimes, kept covered by her tunic, she has made me wait. What is the use of the art of this maidenly shame?
cette froideur rassise, cette contenance seuere, cette profession d’ignorance des choses, qu’elles sçauent mieux, que nous qui les en instruisons, qu’à nous accroistre le desir de vaincre, gourmander, et fouler à nostre appetit, toute cette ceremonie, et ces obstacles? Car il y a non seulement du plaisir, mais de la gloire encore, d’affolir et desbaucher cette molle douceur, et cette pudeur infantine, et de ranger à la mercy de nostre ardeur vne grauité froide et magistrale. C’est gloire, disent-ils, de triompher de la modestie, de la chasteté, et de la temperance: et qui desconseille aux Dames, ces parties là, il les trahit, et soy-mesmes.
this sedate coldness, this severe countenance, this professed ignorance of things they know better than we who instruct them—what is all this ceremony, and all these obstacles, for, if not to increase our desire to conquer, master, and trample them under our appetite? For there is not only pleasure but glory as well in maddening and corrupting that soft sweetness and that childlike modesty, and in bringing a cold and magisterial gravity to the mercy of our ardor. It is a glory, they say, to triumph over modesty, chastity, and temperance; and whoever advises ladies against those qualities betrays both them and himself.
Il faut croire que le cœur leur fremit d’effroy, que le son de nos mots blesse la pureté de leurs oreilles, qu’elles nous en haissent et s’accordent à nostre importunité d’vne force forcée. La beauté, toute puissante qu’elle est, n’a pas dequoy se faire sauourer sans cette entremise. Voyez en Italie, où il y a plus de beauté à vendre, et de la plus fine, comment il faut qu’elle cherche d’autres moyens estrangers, et d’autres arts pour se rendre aggreable: et si à la verité, quoy qu’elle face estant venale et publique, elle demeure foible et languissante.
We must believe that their hearts tremble with fright, that the sound of our words wounds the purity of their ears, that they hate us for it and yield to our importunity only under duress. Beauty, all-powerful as it is, cannot make itself relished without this go-between. Look at Italy, where there is more beauty for sale, and of the finest, and see how it has to seek other outside means and other arts to make itself attractive. And yet, in truth, whatever it does, being for sale and public, it remains feeble and languid.
Tout ainsi que mesme en la vertu, de deux effects pareils, nous tenons neantmoins celuy-là, le plus beau et plus digne, auquel il y a plus d’empeschement et de hazard proposé.
In just the same way, even in virtue, of two equal deeds we nevertheless consider the finer and worthier the one that faced more obstacles and risk.
Difficulty in faith and marriage
Persecution wakes the Church; Roman marriages lasted because divorce was allowed; punishment sharpens vice.
C’est vn effect de la prouidence diuine, de permettre sa saincte Eglise estre agitée, comme nous la voyons de tant de troubles et d’orages, pour esueiller par ce contraste les ames pies, et les r’auoir de l’oisiueté et du sommeil, où les auoit plongees vne si longue tranquillité. Si nous contrepoisons la perte que nous auons faicte, par le nombre de ceux qui se sont desuoyez, au gain qui nous vient pour nous estre remis en haleine, resuscité nostre zele et nos forces, à l’occasion de ce combat, Ie ne sçay si l’vtilité ne surmonte point le dommage.
It is an effect of divine providence to allow its holy Church to be shaken, as we see it, by so many troubles and storms, in order to awaken pious souls by this opposition and rouse them from the idleness and sleep into which so long a tranquillity had plunged them. If we weigh the loss we have suffered, in the number of those who have gone astray, against the gain that comes to us from having been put back on our mettle, with our zeal and strength revived by this combat, I do not know whether the benefit does not outweigh the harm.
Nous auons pensé attacher plus ferme le nœud de nos mariages, pour auoir osté tout moyen de les dissoudre, mais d’autant s’est dépris et relasché le nœud de la volonté et de l’affection, que celuy de la contraincte s’est estrecy. Et au rebours, ce qui tint les mariages à Rome, si long temps en honneur et en seurté, fut la liberté de les rompre, qui voudroit. Ils gardoient mieux leurs femmes, d’autant qu’ils les pouuoient perdre: et en pleine licence de diuorces, il se passa cinq cens ans et plus, auant que nul s’en seruist. Quod licet, ingratum est: quod non licet, acrius vrit.
We thought we were tying the knot of our marriages more firmly by removing every means of dissolving them. But the knot of will and affection has loosened and slackened as much as the knot of constraint has been tightened. On the contrary, what kept marriages at Rome so long in honor and security was the freedom of anyone who wished to break them off. The Romans took better care of their wives because they could lose them; and with full license to divorce, five hundred years and more went by before anyone made use of it. What is allowed has no charm; what is not allowed burns more fiercely.
A ce propos se pourroit ioindre l’opinion d’vn ancien, que les supplices aiguisent les vices plustost qu’ils ne les amortissent: qu’ils n’engendrent point le soing de bien faire, c’est l’ouurage de la raison, et de la discipline: mais seulement vn soing de n’estre surpris en faisant mal. Latius excisæ pestis contagia serpunt Ie ne sçay pas qu’elle soit vraye, mais cecy sçay-ie par experience, que iamais police ne se trouua reformée par là. L’ordre et reglement des mœurs, dépend de quelque autre moyen.
To this point might be added the opinion of an ancient: that punishments sharpen vices rather than deaden them; that they do not produce the concern to do well—that is the work of reason and discipline—but only the concern not to be caught doing ill. The contagion of a plague that has been cut out spreads more widely. I do not know that this opinion is true; but this I do know by experience, that no government was ever reformed by that means. The order and regulation of morals depend on some other means.
Les histoires Grecques font mention des Argippees voisins de la Scythie, qui viuent sans verge et sans baston à offenser: que non seulement nul n’entreprend d’aller attaquer: mais quiconque s’y peut sauuer, il est en franchise, à cause de leur vertu et saincteté de vie: et n’est aucun si osé d’y toucher. On recourt à eux pour appoincter les differents, qui naissent entre les hommes d’ailleurs. Il y a nation, où la closture des iardins et des champs, qu’on veut conseruer, se faict d’vn filet de coton, et se trouue bien plus seure et plus ferme que nos fossez et nos hayes. Furem signata sollicitant. Aperta effractarius præterit.
The Greek histories mention the Argippaeans, neighbors of Scythia, who live without rod or stick to strike with. Not only does no one undertake to attack them, but whoever can take refuge among them is in sanctuary, because of their virtue and holiness of life, and no one is bold enough to touch him. People turn to them to settle the disputes that arise among men elsewhere. There is a nation where the gardens and fields people want to protect are enclosed with a cotton thread, and this proves much safer and firmer than our ditches and hedges. Things under seal tempt the thief. The burglar passes by what is open.
An unguarded house
Montaigne keeps his house open and unfortified through the civil wars, trusting its safety to heaven.
A l’aduenture sert entre autres moyens, l’aisance, à couurir ma maison de la violence de noz guerres ciuiles. La defense attire l’entreprise, et la deffiance l’offense. I’ay affoibly le dessein des soldats, ostant à leur exploit, le hazard, et toute matiere de gloire militaire, qui a accoustumé de leur seruir de titre et d’excuse. Ce qui est faict courageusement, est tousiours faict honorablement, en temps où la iustice est morte. Ie leur rens la conqueste de ma maison lasche et traistresse. Elle n’est close à personne, qui y heurte. Il n’y a pour toute prouision, qu’vn portier, d’ancien vsage et ceremonie: qui ne sert pas tant à defendre ma porte, qu’à l’offrir plus decemment et gratieusement.
Perhaps, among other things, its very openness helps to shield my house from the violence of our civil wars. Defense invites attack, and distrust invites offense. I have weakened the soldiers’ purpose by taking from their exploit all risk and all matter for military glory, which usually serves them as title and excuse. Whatever is done courageously is always done honorably, in times when justice is dead. I make the conquest of my house a cowardly and treacherous act for them. It is closed to no one who knocks. For all its defenses there is only a porter, kept by ancient usage and ceremony, who serves not so much to defend my door as to offer it more decently and graciously.
Ie n’ay ny garde ny sentinelle, que celle que les astres font pour moy. Vn Gentil-homme a tort de faire montre d’estre en deffense, s’il ne l’est bien à poinct. Qui est ouuert d’vn costé, l’est par tout. Noz peres ne penserent pas à bastir des places frontieres. Les moyens d’assaillir, ie dy sans batterie et sans armée, et de surprendre noz maisons, croissent touts les iours, au dessus des moyens de se garder. Les esprits s’aiguisent generalement de ce costé là. L’inuasion touche touts, la defense non, que les riches. La mienne estoit forte selon le temps qu’elle fut faitte: ie n’y ay rien adiousté de ce costé là, et craindroy que sa force se tournast contre moy-mesme.
I have no guard or sentinel but the one the stars keep for me. A gentleman is wrong to make a show of being in a state of defense unless he is fully so. Whoever is open on one side is open everywhere. Our fathers did not think of building frontier fortresses. The means of assaulting and surprising our houses—I mean without artillery and without an army—are growing every day beyond the means of guarding them. Men’s wits are generally being sharpened in that direction. Invasion concerns everyone; defense, only the rich. My house was strong for the time when it was built. I have added nothing to it in that respect, and I would fear that its strength might be turned against me myself.
Ioint qu’vn temps paisible requerra, qu’on les defortifie. Il est dangereux de ne les pouuoir regaigner: et est difficile de s’en asseurer. Car en matiere de guerres intestines, vostre vallet peut estre du party que vous craignez. Et où la religion sert de pretexte, les parentez mesmes deuiennent infiables auec couuerture de iustice. Les finances publiques n’entretiendront pas noz garnisons domestiques. Elles s’y espuiseroient. Nous n’auons pas dequoy le faire sans nostre ruine: ou plus incommodeement et iniurieusement encore, sans celle du peuple. L’estat de ma perte ne seroit guere pire. Au demeurant, vous y perdez vous, voz amis mesmes s’amusent à accuser vostre inuigilance et improuidence, plus qu’à vous pleindre, et l’ignorance ou nonchalance aux offices de vostre profession.
Besides, peaceful times will require such houses to be dismantled. It is dangerous to be unable to win them back, and it is hard to be sure of them. For in civil wars your own servant may belong to the party you fear. And where religion serves as a pretext, even kinsmen become untrustworthy under cover of justice. Public funds will not maintain our household garrisons; they would be drained by it. We do not have the means to do it without ruining ourselves—or, more harmfully and unjustly still, without ruining the people. Losing my house would leave me hardly worse off. Moreover, if you do come to grief, even your friends are busier blaming your lack of vigilance and foresight, and your ignorance or carelessness in the duties of your profession, than pitying you.
Ce que tant de maisons gardées se sont perduës, où ceste cy dure: me fait soupçonner, qu’elles se sont perduës de ce, qu’elles estoyent gardées. Cela donne et l’enuie et la raison à l’assaillant. Toute garde porte visage de guerre. Qui se iettera, si Dieu veut, chez moy: mais tant y a, que ie ne l’y appelleray pas. C’est la retraitte à me reposer des guerres. I’essaye de soustraire ce coing, à la tempeste publique, comme ie fay vn autre coing en mon ame. Nostre guerre a beau changer de formes, se multiplier et diuersifier en nouueaux partis: pour moy ie ne bouge.
That so many guarded houses have been lost while this one survives makes me suspect that they were lost because they were guarded. That gives the attacker both the desire and the justification. Every guard wears the face of war. Anyone may hurl himself into my house, if God so wills; but at any rate I shall not invite him. It is my retreat, where I rest from the wars. I try to keep this corner out of the public storm, as I do another corner in my soul. Our war may change its forms as it likes, multiply and split into new factions: as for me, I do not budge.
Entre tant de maisons armées, moy seul, que ie sçache, de ma condition, ay fié purement au ciel la protection de la mienne. Et n’en ay iamais osté ny vaisselle d’argent, ny titre, ny tapisserie. Ie ne veux ny me craindre, ny me sauuer à demy. Si vne pleine recognoissance acquiert la faueur diuine, elle me durera iusqu’au bout: sinon, i’ay tousiours assez duré, pour rendre ma durée remerquable et enregistrable. Comment? Il y a bien trente ans.
Among so many armed houses, I alone of my rank, as far as I know, have entrusted the protection of mine purely to heaven. And I have never removed from it either silver plate, or title deeds, or tapestry. I want neither to be afraid for myself nor to save myself by halves. If full gratitude wins divine favor, it will last me to the end; if not, I have still lasted long enough to make my lasting remarkable and worth recording. How long? A good thirty years.