IL y a le nom et la chose: le nom, c’est vne voix qui remerque et signifie la chose: le nom, ce n’est pas vne partie de la chose, ny de la substance: c’est vne piece estrangere ioincte à la chose, et hors d’elle.
There is the name and there is the thing. The name is a sound that marks and signifies the thing. The name is not a part of the thing, nor of its substance; it is a foreign piece attached to the thing, and outside it.
Dieu qui est en soy toute plenitude, et le comble de toute perfection, il ne peut s’augmenter et accroistre au dedans: mais son nom se peut augmenter et accroistre, par la benediction et loüange, que nous donnons à ses ouurages exterieurs. Laquelle loüange, puis que nous ne la pouuons incorporer en luy, d’autant qu’il n’y peut auoir accession de bien, nous l’attribuons à son nom, qui est la piece hors de luy, la plus voisine. Voylà comment c’est à Dieu seul, à qui gloire et honneur appartient.
God, who is in himself all fullness and the summit of all perfection, cannot increase or grow within. But his name can increase and grow through the blessing and praise we give to his outward works. Since we cannot incorporate this praise in him, inasmuch as no good can be added to him, we attribute it to his name, which is the part outside him that is nearest to him. That is how glory and honor belong to God alone.
Et n’est rien si esloigné de raison, que de nous en mettre en queste pour nous: car estans indigens et necessiteux au dedans, nostre essence estant imparfaicte, et ayant continuellement besoing d’amelioration, c’est là, à quoy nous nous deuons trauailler. Nous sommes tous creux et vuides: ce n’est pas de vent et de voix que nous auons à nous remplir: il nous faut de la substance plus solide à nous reparer. Vn homme affamé seroit bien simple de chercher à se pouruoir plustost d’vn beau vestement, que d’vn bon repas: il faut courir au plus pressé. Comme disent nos ordinaires prieres, Gloria in excelcis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus.
And nothing is so contrary to reason as for us to go in quest of glory for ourselves. For since we are needy and destitute within, and our essence is imperfect and continually in need of improvement, that is what we ought to be working at. We are all hollow and empty. It is not with wind and sound that we have to fill ourselves; we need more solid substance to restore us. A starving man would be very foolish to try to provide himself with a fine garment rather than a good meal: we must run to what is most urgent. As our daily prayers say, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men.
Nous sommes en disette de beauté, santé, sagesse, vertu, et telles parties essentieles: les ornemens externes se chercheront apres que nous aurons proueu aux choses necessaires. La theologie traicte amplement et plus pertinemment ce subiect, mais ie n’y suis guere versé.
We are short of beauty, health, wisdom, virtue, and such essential qualities. Outward ornaments can be sought once we have provided for necessary things. Theology treats this subject at length and more pertinently, but I am hardly versed in it.
Chrysippus et Diogenes ont esté les premiers autheurs et les plus fermes du mespris de la gloire. Et entre toutes les voluptez, ils disoient qu’il n’y en auoit point de plus dangereuse, ny plus à fuir, que celle qui nous vient de l’approbation d’autruy. De vray l’experience nous en fait sentir plusieurs trahisons bien dommageables. Il n’est chose qui empoisonne tant les Princes que la flatterie, ny rien par où les meschans gaignent plus aiséement credit autour d’eux: ny maquerelage si propre et si ordinaire à corrompre la chasteté des femmes, que de les paistre et entretenir de leurs loüanges.
Chrysippus and Diogenes were the first and firmest advocates of contempt for glory. And among all pleasures, they said, there was none more dangerous or more to be avoided than the one that comes to us from others’ approval. Indeed, experience makes us feel many very harmful betrayals from it. Nothing poisons princes so much as flattery, nor is there anything by which the wicked more easily gain credit around them. Nor is there any pandering so apt and so common for corrupting women’s chastity as feeding and entertaining them with their own praises.
Le premier enchantement que les Sirenes employent à piper Vlysses, est de cette nature: Deça vers nous, deça, ô tresloüable Vlysse, / Et le plus grand honneur dont la Grece fleurisse. Ces philosophes là disoient, que toute la gloire du monde ne meritoit pas qu’vn homme d’entendement estendist seulement le doigt pour l’acquerir: Gloria quantalibet quid erit, si gloria tantúm est? Ie dis pour elle seule: car elle tire souuent à sa suite plusieurs commoditez, pour lesquelles elle se peut rendre desirable: elle nous acquiert de la bienvueillance: elle nous rend moins exposez aux iniures et offences d’autruy, et choses semblables.
The first enchantment the Sirens use to beguile Ulysses is of this kind: Come this way, come to us, O most praiseworthy Ulysses, / The greatest honor that makes Greece flourish. Those philosophers said that all the glory in the world did not deserve that a man of understanding should so much as stretch out a finger to acquire it: Glory, however great, what will it be, if it is only glory? I mean for itself alone; for it often draws in its train many advantages for which it may become desirable: it wins us goodwill; it makes us less exposed to the insults and injuries of others; and the like.
C’estoit aussi des principaux dogmes d’Epicurus: car ce precepte de sa secte, cache ta vie, qui deffend aux hommes de s’empescher des charges et negotiations publiques, presuppose aussi necessairement qu’on mesprise la gloire: qui est vne approbation que le monde fait des actions que nous mettons en euidence. Celuy qui nous ordonne de nous cacher, et de n’auoir soing que de nous, et qui ne veut pas que nous soyons connus d’autruy, il veut encores moins que nous en soyons honorez et glorifiez. Aussi conseille il à Idomeneus, de ne regler aucunement ses actions, par l’opinion ou reputation commune: si ce n’est pour euiter les autres incommoditez accidentales, que le mespris des hommes luy pourroit apporter.
This was also one of Epicurus’ chief doctrines. For that precept of his school, “Hide your life,” which forbids men to burden themselves with public offices and business, also necessarily presupposes contempt for glory, which is the world’s approval of the actions we bring into view. He who orders us to hide ourselves and to care only for ourselves, and who does not want us to be known by others, wants still less that we be honored and glorified by them. So he advises Idomeneus not to regulate his actions in any way by common opinion or reputation, except to avoid the other incidental inconveniences that men’s contempt might bring him.
Ces discours là sont infiniment vrais, à mon aduis, et raisonnables. Mais nous sommes, ie ne sçay comment, doubles en nous mesmes, qui fait que ce que nous croyons, nous ne le croyons pas: et ne nous pouuons deffaire de ce que nous condamnons. Voyons les dernieres paroles d’Epicurus, et qu’il dit en mourant: elles sont grandes et dignes d’vn tel philosophe: mais si ont elles quelque merque de la recommendation de son nom, et de cette humeur qu’il auoit descriée par ses preceptes. Voicy vne lettre qu’il dicta vn peu auant son dernier souspir. Epicvrvs a Hermachvs salvt.
Those arguments are infinitely true, in my opinion, and reasonable. But we are, I know not how, double within ourselves, so that what we believe we do not believe, and we cannot rid ourselves of what we condemn. Let us look at Epicurus’ last words, what he said as he was dying. They are great and worthy of such a philosopher; and yet they bear some mark of concern for the renown of his name, and of that disposition he had decried in his precepts. Here is a letter he dictated a little before his last breath. Epicurus to Hermarchus, greeting.
Ce pendant que ie passois l’heureux, et celuy-là mesmes le dernier iour de ma vie, i’escriuois cecy, accompaigné toutesfois de telle douleur en la vessie et aux intestins, qu’il ne peut rien estre adiousté à sa grandeur. Mais elle estoit compensée par le plaisir qu’apportoit à mon ame la souuenance de mes inuentions et de mes discours. Or toy comme requiert l’affection que tu as eu dés ton enfance enuers moy, et la philosophie, embrasse la protection des enfans de Metrodorus.
While I was passing the happy day of my life, which is also the last, I wrote this, though accompanied by such pain in the bladder and intestines that nothing could be added to its intensity. But it was offset by the pleasure my soul took in remembering my discoveries and my reasonings. Now you, as the affection you have shown since childhood toward me and toward philosophy requires, take upon yourself the protection of the children of Metrodorus.
Voila sa lettre. Et ce qui me fait interpreter que ce plaisir qu’il dit sentir en son ame, de ses inuentions, regarde aucunement la reputation qu’il en esperoit acquerir apres sa mort, c’est l’ordonnance de son testament, par lequel il veut que Aminomachus et Timocrates ses heritiers, fournissent pour la celebration de son iour natal tous les mois de Ianuier, les frais que Hermachus ordonneroit: et aussi pour la despence qui se feroit le vingtiesme iour de chasque lune, au traittement des philosophes ses familiers, qui s’assembleroient à l’honneur de la memoire de luy et de Metrodorus.
That is his letter. And what makes me interpret this pleasure he says he felt in his soul from his discoveries as having something to do with the reputation he hoped to gain from them after his death is a provision of his will. By it he directs that Amynomachus and Timocrates, his heirs, should furnish, for the celebration of his birthday every January, whatever expenses Hermarchus might prescribe; and also the cost, on the twentieth day of each moon, of entertaining the philosophers of his circle who would gather in honor of his memory and that of Metrodorus.
Glory for its own sake
Carneades and Aristotle defend glory, but virtue that works only for show is no virtue.
Carneades a esté chef de l’opinion contraire: et a maintenu que la gloire estoit pour elle mesme desirable, tout ainsi que nous embrassons nos posthumes pour eux-mesmes, n’en ayans aucune cognoissance ny iouyssance. Cette opinion n’a pas failly d’estre plus communement suyuie, comme sont volontiers celles qui s’accommodent le plus à nos inclinations. Aristote luy donne le premier rang entre les biens externes: Euite, comme deux extremes vicieux, l’immoderation, et à la rechercher, et à la fuyr.
Carneades was the leader of the opposite opinion. He maintained that glory was desirable for its own sake, just as we cherish those who will come after our death for their own sake, though we shall have no knowledge or enjoyment of them. This opinion has not failed to be more commonly followed, as those that best suit our inclinations readily are. Aristotle gives glory first rank among external goods. He shuns, as two vicious extremes, immoderation both in seeking it and in fleeing it.
Ie croy que si nous auions les liures que Cicero auoit escrit sur ce subiect, il nous en conteroit de belles: car cet homme là fut si forcené de cette passion, que s’il eust osé, il fust, ce crois-ie, volontiers tombé en l’excez où tomberent d’autres, que la vertu mesme n’estoit desirable, que pour l’honneur qui se tenoit tousiours à sa suitte: Paulum sepultæ distat inertiæ / Celata virtus. Qui est vn’ opinion si fauce, que ie suis dépit qu’elle ait iamais peu entrer en l’entendement d’homme, qui eust cet honneur de porter le nom de philosophe.
I believe that if we had the books Cicero wrote on this subject, he would tell us some fine things. For that man was so frantic with this passion that, had he dared, he would, I believe, readily have fallen into the excess others fell into: that virtue itself was desirable only for the honor that always followed in its train. Hidden virtue differs little / From buried sloth. This is an opinion so false that I am vexed it could ever have entered the understanding of a man who had the honor of bearing the name of philosopher.
Si cela estoit vray, il ne faudroit estre vertueux qu’en public: et les operations de l’ame, où est le vray siege de la vertu, nous n’aurions que faire de les tenir en regle et en ordre, sinon autant qu’elles deburoient venir à la cognoissance d’autruy. N’y va il donc que de faillir finement et subtilement? Si tu sçais, dit Carneades, vn serpent caché en ce lieu, auquel sans y penser, se va seoir celuy, de la mort duquel tu esperes profit: tu fais meschamment, si tu ne l’en aduertis: et d’autant plus que ton action ne doibt estre cognuë que de toy.
If that were true, we would need to be virtuous only in public; and the workings of the soul, where the true seat of virtue lies, we would need to keep in rule and order only insofar as they were going to come to others’ knowledge. Is it, then, only a matter of doing wrong cleverly and subtly? If you know, says Carneades, of a snake hidden in a place where, without a thought, a man is about to sit whose death you hope to profit from, you act wickedly if you do not warn him—and all the more so since your action can be known by no one but you.
Si nous ne prenons de nous mesmes la loy de bien faire: si l’impunité nous est iustice, à combien de sortes de meschancetez auons nous tous les iours à nous abandonner? Ce que S. Peduceus fit, de rendre fidelement cela que C. Plotius auoit commis à sa seule science, de ses richesses, et ce que i’en ay faict souuent de mesme, ie ne le trouue pas tant loüable, comme ie trouueroy execrable, que nous y eussions failly. Et trouue bon et vtile à ramenteuoir en noz iours, l’exemple de P. Sextilius Ruffus, que Cicero accuse pour auoir recueilly vne heredité contre sa conscience: non seulement, non contre les loix, mais par les loix mesmes. Et M. Crassus, et Q.
If we do not take the law of doing good from ourselves, if impunity counts as justice for us, to how many kinds of wickedness must we abandon ourselves every day? What S. Peducaeus did, in faithfully returning that part of his wealth which C. Plotius had entrusted to him alone without anyone’s knowledge—and I have often done the same—I do not find so praiseworthy as I would find it execrable to have failed to do it. And I find it good and useful to recall in our day the example of P. Sextilius Rufus, whom Cicero accuses of having taken up an inheritance against his conscience—not merely not against the laws, but by the laws themselves. And M. Crassus and Q.
Hortensius, lesquels à cause de leur authorité et puissance, ayants esté pour certaines quotitez appellez par vn estranger à la succession d’vn testament faux, à fin que par ce moyen il y establist sa part: se contenterent de n’estre participants de la fauceté, et ne refuserent d’en tirer du fruit: assez couuerts, s’ils se tenoient à l’abry des accusations, et des tesmoins, et des loix. Meminerint Deum se habere testem, id est, vt ego arbitror, mentem suam.
Hortensius, who, because of their authority and power, were named by a foreigner as heirs for certain shares of a forged will, so that he might secure his own share by this means. They were content not to be party to the forgery, and did not refuse to reap its fruit—well enough covered, they thought, if they kept sheltered from accusations, from witnesses, and from the laws. Let them remember that they have God as their witness, that is, as I take it, their own mind.
La vertu est chose bien vaine et friuole, si elle tire sa recommendation de la gloire. Pour neant entreprendrions nous de luy faire tenir son rang à part, et la déioindrions de la Fortune: car qu’est-il plus fortuite que la reputation? Profectò fortuna in omni re dominatur: ea res cunctas ex libidine magis quàm ex vero celebrat obscurátque. De faire que les actions soyent cognues et veuës, c’est le pur ouurage de la Fortune. C’est le sort qui nous applique la gloire, selon sa temerité. Ie l’ay veuë fort souuent marcher auant le merite: et souuent outrepasser le merite d’vne longue mesure. Celuy qui premier s’aduisa de la ressemblance de l’ombre à la gloire, fit mieux qu’il ne vouloit. Ce sont choses excellemment vaines.
Virtue is a very vain and frivolous thing if it draws its worth from glory. In vain would we try to give it a rank of its own and separate it from Fortune; for what is more fortuitous than reputation? Truly, Fortune rules in all things: she makes everything famous or obscure according to her whim rather than the truth. Making actions known and seen is purely the work of Fortune. It is chance that bestows glory on us, as blindly as it pleases. I have very often seen glory walk ahead of merit, and often outstrip merit by a long way. The man who first noticed the resemblance between shadow and glory did better than he meant to. They are supremely vain things.
Elle va aussi quelque fois deuant son corps: et quelque fois l’excede de beaucoup en longueur. Ceux qui apprennent à la noblesse de ne chercher en la vaillance que l’honneur: quasi non sit honestum quod nobilitatum non sit: que gaignent-ils par là, que de les instruire de ne se hazarder iamais, si on ne les voit, et de prendre bien garde, s’il y a des tesmoins, qui puissent rapporter nouuelles de leur valeur, là où il se presente mille occasions de bien faire, sans qu’on en puisse estre remerqué? Combien de belles actions particulieres s’enseuelisent dans la foule d’vne bataille?
A shadow, too, sometimes goes ahead of its body, and sometimes far exceeds it in length. Those who teach the nobility to seek nothing in valor but honor—as if nothing were honorable that is not famous—what do they gain by it, except to teach them never to take a risk unless they are seen, and to take good care that there are witnesses who can carry back news of their valor, when a thousand occasions present themselves for doing well without anyone being able to notice? How many fine individual deeds are buried in the crush of a battle?
Quiconque s’amuse à contreroller autruy pendant vne telle meslée, il n’y est guere embesoigné: et produit contre soy mesmes le tesmoignage qu’il rend des deportemens de ses compaignons. Vera et sapiens animi magnitudo, honestum illud quod maximè naturam sequitur, in factis positum, non in gloria, iudicat. Toute la gloire, que ie pretens de ma vie, c’est de l’auoir vescue tranquille. Tranquille non selon Metrodorus, ou Arcesilas, ou Aristippus, mais selon moy. Puisque la philosophie n’a sçeu trouuer aucune voye pour la tranquillité, qui fust bonne en commun, que chacun la cherche en son particulier.
Whoever amuses himself checking up on others in the middle of such a melee is hardly busy fighting himself; the testimony he gives of his comrades’ conduct is evidence against himself. True and wise greatness of soul judges that the honorable, which most closely follows nature, lies in deeds, not in glory. All the glory I aspire to from my life is to have lived it in tranquillity—tranquillity not according to Metrodorus, or Arcesilaus, or Aristippus, but according to me. Since philosophy has not been able to find any road to tranquillity that would be good for everyone in common, let each man seek it for himself.
Fortune makes reputations
Countless brave deeds die without witnesses; only Fortune decides whose name survives.
A qui doiuent Cæsar et Alexandre cette grandeur infinie de leur renommée, qu’à la Fortune? Combien d’hommes a elle esteint, sur le commencement de leur progrés, desquels nous n’auons aucune cognoissance, qui y apportoient mesme courage que le leur, si le malheur de leur sort ne les eust arrestez tout court, sur la naissance mesme de leurs entreprinses? Au trauers de tant et si extremes dangers il ne me souuient point auoir leu que Cæsar ait esté iamais blessé. Mille sont morts de moindres perils, que le moindre de ceux qu’il franchit. Infinies belles actions se doiuent perdre sans tesmoignage, auant qu’il en vienne vne à profit.
To whom do Caesar and Alexander owe the infinite greatness of their renown, if not to Fortune? How many men has she snuffed out at the very start of their progress, men of whom we know nothing, who brought to it the same courage as theirs, had not the misfortune of their lot stopped them short at the very birth of their enterprises? Through so many and such extreme dangers, I do not remember reading that Caesar was ever wounded. A thousand men have died from perils smaller than the least of those he came through. Countless fine deeds must be lost without witness before one of them yields any profit.
On n’est pas tousiours sur le haut d’vne bresche, ou à la teste d’vne armée, à la veuë de son general, comme sur vn eschaffaut. On est surpris entre la haye et le fossé: il faut tenter fortune contre vn poullailler: il faut dénicher quatre chetifs harquebusiers d’vne grange: il faut seul s’escarter de la trouppe et entreprendre seul, selon la necessité qui s’offre. Et si on prend garde, on trouuera, à mon aduis, qu’il aduient par experience, que les moins esclattantes occasions sont les plus dangereuses: et qu’aux guerres, qui se sont passées de notre temps, il s’est perdu plus de gens de bien, aux occasions legeres et peu importantes, et à la contestation de quelque bicoque, qu’és lieux dignes et honnorables.
You are not always at the top of a breach or at the head of an army, in sight of your general, as if on a stage. You are caught between hedge and ditch; you have to try your luck against a henhouse; you have to dislodge four wretched arquebusiers from a barn; you have to break away from the troop and act alone, as necessity arises. And if you pay attention, you will find, in my opinion, that experience shows the least brilliant occasions to be the most dangerous; and that in the wars of our time more good men have been lost on slight and unimportant occasions, and in the struggle over some petty shack of a fort, than in worthy and honorable places.
Qui tient sa mort pour mal employée, si ce n’est en occasion signalée: au lieu d’illustrer sa mort, il obscurcit volontiers sa vie: laissant eschapper ce pendant plusieurs iustes occasions de se hazarder. Et toutes les iustes sont illustres assez: sa conscience les trompettant suffisamment à chacun. Gloria nostra est testimonium conscientiæ nostræ. Qui n’est homme de bien que par ce qu’on le sçaura, et par ce qu’on l’en estimera mieux, apres l’auoir sçeu, qui ne veut bien faire qu’en condition que sa vertu vienne à la cognoissance des hommes, celuy-là n’est pas personne de qui on puisse tirer beaucoup de seruice.
The man who considers his death ill spent unless it comes on some signal occasion is apt, instead of making his death illustrious, to obscure his life, letting slip meanwhile many just occasions for risking himself. And all just occasions are illustrious enough, since each man’s conscience trumpets them loudly enough to him. Our glory is the testimony of our conscience. The man who is good only because people will know it, and because they will think better of him once they know it; who will do good only on condition that his virtue comes to men’s knowledge—that is not a person from whom much service can be expected.
Credo che’l resto di quel verno cose / Facesse degne di tener ne conto; / Ma fur sin’à quel tempo si nascose, / Che non è colpa mia s’hor’ non le conto: / Perche Orlando a far l’opre virtuose, / Piu ch’à narrarle poi, sempre era pronto, / Nè mai fu alcun’de li suoi fatti espresso, / Senon quando hebbe i testimonij appresso. Il faut aller à la guerre pour son deuoir, et en attendre cette recompense, qui ne peut faillir à toutes belles actions, pour occultes qu’elles soyent, non pas mesmes aux vertueuses pensées: c’est le contentement qu’vne conscience bien reglée reçoit en soy, de bien faire.
I believe that for the rest of that winter he did / Things worthy of being recorded; / But up to that time they were so hidden / That it is not my fault if I do not tell them now: / For Orlando was always readier / To do valiant deeds than to tell of them afterward, / Nor was any of his deeds ever made known / Except when he had witnesses at hand. We must go to war out of duty and expect from it the reward that cannot fail any fine deed, however hidden, nor even virtuous thoughts: the contentment that a well-ordered conscience feels within itself at doing well.
Il faut estre vaillant pour soy-mesmes, et pour l’auantage que c’est d’auoir son courage logé en vne assiette ferme et asseurée, contre les assauts de la Fortune. Virtus, repulsæ nescia sordidæ, / Intaminatis fulget honoribus: / Nec sumit aut ponit secures / Arbitrio popularis auræ. Ce n’est pas pour la montre, que nostre ame doit iouër son rolle, c’est chez nous au dedans, où nuls yeux ne donnent que les nostres: là elle nous couure de la crainte de la mort, des douleurs et de la honte mesme: elle nous asseure là, de la perte de nos enfans, de nos amis, et de nos fortunes: et quand l’opportunité s’y presente, elle nous conduit aussi aux hazards de la guerre.
We must be valiant for our own sake, and for the advantage of having our courage lodged in a firm and secure position against the assaults of Fortune. Virtue, knowing nothing of shameful defeat, / Shines with untarnished honors, / And neither takes up nor lays down the axes / At the whim of the popular breeze. It is not for show that our soul must play its part; it is at home, within, where no eyes reach but our own. There it shields us from the fear of death, of pain, and even of shame; there it steadies us against the loss of our children, our friends, and our fortunes; and when the opportunity arises, it also leads us into the hazards of war.
Non emolumento aliquo, sed ipsius honestatis decore. Ce profit est bien plus grand, et bien plus digne d’estre souhaité et esperé, que l’honneur et la gloire, qui n’est autre chose qu’vn fauorable iugement qu’on fait de nous.
Not for any gain, but for the beauty of honor itself. This profit is far greater, and far more worth wishing and hoping for, than honor and glory, which is nothing but a favorable judgment others make of us.
Il faut trier de toute vne nation, vne douzaine d’hommes, pour iuger d’vn arpent de terre, et le iugement de nos inclinations, et de nos actions, la plus difficile matiere, et la plus importante qui soit, nous la remettons à la voix de la commune et de la tourbe, mere d’ignorance, d’iniustice, et d’inconstance. Est-ce raison de faire dependre la vie d’vn sage, du iugement des fols? An quidquam stultius, quàm quos singulos contemnas, eos aliquid putare esse vniuersos? Quiconque vise à leur plaire, il n’a iamais faict, c’est vne bute qui n’a ny forme ny prise.
To judge an acre of land, a dozen men are picked out of a whole nation. Yet the judgment of our inclinations and our actions, the most difficult and the most important matter there is, we leave to the voice of the common people and the mob, mother of ignorance, injustice and inconstancy. Is it reasonable to make a wise man’s life depend on the judgment of fools? Is anything more foolish than to think that those whom you despise one by one amount to something all together? Whoever aims to please them will never be done: it is a target with neither shape nor hold.
Nil tam inæstimabile est, quàm animi multitudinis. Demetrius disoit plaisamment de la voix du peuple, qu’il ne faisoit non plus de recette, de celle qui luy sortoit par en haut, que de celle qui luy sortoit par en bas. Celuy la dit encore plus: Ego hoc iudico, si quando turpe non sit, tamen non esse non turpe, quum id à multitudine laudetur. Null’art, nulle soupplesse d’esprit pourroit conduire nos pas à la suitte d’vn guide si desuoyé et si desreglé. En cette confusion venteuse de bruits de rapports et opinions vulgaires, qui nous poussent, il ne se peut establir aucune route qui vaille.
Nothing is so incalculable as the minds of the multitude. Demetrius said wittily of the voice of the people that he set no more store by the sound it let out from above than by the sound it let out from below. Another goes further still: My judgment is this: even if a thing is not shameful, it cannot help being shameful when it is praised by the multitude. No skill, no suppleness of mind could guide our steps in the wake of so wayward and disorderly a guide. In this windy confusion of rumors, reports and common opinions that push us about, no route worth anything can be laid down.
Ne nous proposons point vne fin si flotante et volage: allons constamment apres la raison: que l’approbation publique nous suyue par là, si elle veut: et comme elle despend toute de la Fortune, nous n’auons point loy de l’esperer plustost par autre voye que par celle là.
Let us not set ourselves so floating and fickle an end. Let us follow reason steadily, and let public approval follow us along that path if it will. And since it depends entirely on Fortune, we have no ground to hope for it by any other road than that one.
Quand pour sa droiture ie ne suyurois le droit chemin, ie le suyurois pour auoir trouué par experience, qu’au bout du compte, c’est communement le plus heureux, et le plus vtile. Dedit hoc prouidentia hominibus munus, vt honesta magis iuuarent. Le marinier ancien disoit ainsin à Neptune, en vne grande tempeste: O Dieu tu me sauueras si tu veux, si tu veux tu me perdras: mais si tiendray-ie tousiours droit mon timon.
Even if I did not follow the straight road because it is straight, I would follow it because I have found by experience that in the end it is usually the happiest and the most useful. Providence has granted men this gift: that honorable things should be the most profitable. The sailor of old spoke thus to Neptune in a great storm: “O God, you will save me if you will; if you will, you will destroy me; but still I shall always hold my tiller straight.”
I’ay veu de mon temps mill’ hommes soupples, mestis, ambigus, et que nul ne doubtoit plus prudens mondains que moy, se perdre où ie me suis sauué: Risi successu posse carere dolos. Paul Æmyle allant en sa glorieuse expedition de Macedoine, aduertit sur tout le peuple à Rome, de contenir leur langue de ses actions, pendant son absence. Que la licence des iugements, est vn grand destourbier aux grands affaires! D’autant que chacun n’a pas la fermeté de Fabius à l’encontre des voix communes, contraires et iniurieuses qui ayma mieux laisser desmembrer son authorité aux vaines fantasies des hommes, que faire moins bien sa charge, auec fauorable reputation, et populaire consentement.
In my time I have seen a thousand men, supple, two-faced, ambiguous, whom no one doubted to be more worldly-wise than I, come to ruin where I came through safe: I laughed to see that cunning can fail of success. Paulus Aemilius, setting out on his glorious expedition to Macedonia, warned the people of Rome above all to hold their tongues about his actions while he was away. What a great hindrance the license of judgments is to great affairs! For not everyone has the firmness of Fabius against the common voices, hostile and abusive: he preferred to let his authority be torn to pieces by men’s idle notions rather than do his task less well with a favorable reputation and popular consent.
Il y a ie ne sçay quelle douceur naturelle à se sentir louër, mais nous luy prestons trop de beaucoup. Laudari haud metuam, neque enim mihi cornea fibra es; / Sed recti finémqve extremúmque esse recuso / Euge tuum et bellè. Ie ne me soucie pas tant, quel ie sois chez autruy, comme ie me soucie quel ie sois en moy-mesme. Ie veux estre riche par moy, non par emprunt. Les estrangers ne voyent que les euenemens et apparences externes: chacun peut faire bonne mine par le dehors, plein au dedans de fiebure et d’effroy. Ils ne voyent pas mon cœur, ils ne voyent que mes contenances.
There is some natural sweetness in feeling oneself praised, but we lend it far too much. I would not fear praise, for my heart is not made of horn; / But I refuse to take your “Bravo!” and your “Well done!” / As the end and the limit of what is right. I do not care so much what I am in other people’s eyes as I care what I am in myself. I want to be rich through myself, not by borrowing. Outsiders see only outcomes and outward appearances; anyone can put a good face on things outside while full of fever and terror inside. They do not see my heart; they see only my bearing.
On a raison de descrier l’hypocrisie, qui se trouue en la guerre: car qu’est il plus aisé à vn homme pratic, que de gauchir aux dangers, et de contrefaire le mauuais, ayant le cœur plein de mollesse? Il y a tant de moyens d’euiter les occasions de se hazarder en particulier, que nous aurons trompé mille fois le monde, auant que de nous engager à vn dangereux pas: et lors mesme, nous y trouuant empétrez, nous sçaurons bien pour ce coup, couurir nostre ieu d’vn bon visage, et d’vne parolle asseurée, quoy que l’ame nous tremble au dedans.
People are right to decry the hypocrisy found in war. For what is easier for a practiced man than to dodge dangers and play the fierce fighter while his heart is full of softness? There are so many ways of avoiding occasions to risk ourselves individually that we will have deceived the world a thousand times before committing ourselves to a dangerous pass. And even then, finding ourselves caught in it, we will know well enough how to cover our game for the moment with a bold face and a confident word, though our soul trembles within.
Et qui auroit l’vsage de l’anneau Platonique, rendant inuisible celuy qui le portoit au doigt, si on luy donnoit le tour vers le plat de la main: assez de gents souuent se cacheroyent, où il se faut presenter le plus: et se repentiroyent d’estre placez en lieu si honorable, auquel la necessité les rend asseurez. Falsus honor iuuat, et mendax infamia terret / Quem, nisi mendosum et mendacem? Voyla comment tous ces iugemens qui se font des apparences externes, sont merueilleusement incertains et douteux: et n’est aucun si asseuré tesmoing, comme chacun à soy-mesme. En celles là combien auons nous de goujats, compaignons de nostre gloire?
And if anyone had the use of Plato’s ring, which made its wearer invisible when it was turned toward the palm of the hand, plenty of people would often hide just where they most ought to show themselves, and would regret being placed in so honorable a post, where it is necessity that makes them steady. False honor delights, and lying slander frightens / Whom but the faulty and the liar? See how wonderfully uncertain and doubtful all these judgments made from outward appearances are; and there is no witness so sure as each man to himself. In those appearances, how many camp servants do we have as partners in our glory?
Celuy qui se tient ferme dans vne tranchée descouuerte, que fait il en cela, que ne facent deuant luy cinquante pauures pionniers, qui luy ouurent le pas, et le couurent de leurs corps, pour cinq sols de paye par iour? Non quicquid turbida Roma / Eleuet, accedas, examénque improbum in illa / Castiges trutina: nec te quæsiueris extrà.
The man who stands firm in an open trench—what does he do there that fifty poor sappers have not done before him, who open the way for him and cover him with their bodies for five sous’ pay a day? If muddled Rome makes light of something, / Do not side with it, nor try to set right the faulty needle / On that scale; do not look for yourself outside yourself.
To be talked about
Men want to be talked about at any price, though fame cannot reach us after death.
Nous appellons aggrandir nostre nom, l’estendre et semer en plusieurs bouches: nous voulons qu’il y soit receu en bonne part, et que cette sienne accroissance luy vienne à profit: voyla ce qu’il y peut auoir de plus excusable en ce dessein. Mais l’exces de cette maladie en va iusques là, que plusieurs cherchent de faire parler d’eux en quelque façon que ce soit. Trogus Pompeius dit de Herostratus, et Titus Liuius de Manlius Capitolinus, qu’ils estoyent plus desireux de grande, que de bonne reputation. Ce vice est ordinaire. Nous nous soignons plus qu’on parle de nous, que comment on en parle: et nous est assez que nostre nom coure par la bouche des hommes, en quelque condition qu’il y coure.
We call it enlarging our name to spread it and sow it in many mouths. We want it to be well received there, and we want this growth of it to bring it profit: that is what may be most excusable in this design. But the excess of this malady goes so far that many seek to get themselves talked about in any way whatever. Trogus Pompeius says of Herostratus, and Livy of Manlius Capitolinus, that they were more eager for a great reputation than for a good one. This vice is common. We care more that people talk about us than how they talk about us; and it is enough for us that our name runs in men’s mouths, in whatever condition it runs.
Il semble que l’estre conneu, ce soit aucunement auoir sa vie et sa durée en la garde d’autruy.
It seems that to be known is in some way to have one’s life and its duration in other people’s keeping.
Moy, ie tiens que ie ne suis que chez moy, et de cette autre mienne vie qui loge en la cognoissance de mes amis, à la considerer nuë, et simplement en soy, ie sçay bien que ie n’en sens fruict ny iouyssance, que par la vanité d’vne opinion fantastique. Et quand ie seray mort, ie m’en resentiray encores beaucoup moins. Et si perdray tout net, l’vsage des vrayes vtilitez, qui accidentalement la suyuent par fois: ie n’auray plus de prise par où saisir la reputation: ny par où elle puisse me toucher ny arriuer à moy.
For my part, I hold that I exist only within myself. As for that other life of mine that lodges in my friends’ knowledge, considered bare and simply in itself, I know well that I get no fruit or enjoyment from it except through the vanity of a fanciful opinion. And when I am dead I shall feel it much less still. Besides, I shall lose outright the use of the real benefits that sometimes follow it by accident: I shall no longer have any handle by which to seize reputation, nor any by which it can touch me or reach me.
Car de m’attendre que mon nom la reçoiue: premierement ie n’ay point de nom qui soit assez mien: de deux que i’ay, l’vn est commun à toute ma race, voire encore à d’autres. Il y a vne famille à Paris et à Montpelier, qui se surnomme Montaigne: vne autre en Bretaigne, et en Xaintonge, de la Montaigne. Le remuement d’vne seule syllabe, meslera noz fusées, de façon que i’auray part à leur gloire, et eux à l’aduenture à ma honte. Et si, les miens se sont autresfois surnommez Eyquem, surnom qui touche encore vne maison cogneuë en Angleterre. Quant à mon autre nom, il est, à quiconque aura enuie de le prendre. Ainsi i’honoreray peut estre, vn crocheteur en ma place.
For if I expect my name to receive it—first of all, I have no name that is sufficiently my own. Of the two I have, one is common to my whole line, and indeed to others as well. There is a family in Paris and Montpellier called Montaigne, another in Brittany and Saintonge called de la Montaigne. Shifting a single syllable will tangle our skeins, so that I shall have a share in their glory, and they perhaps in my shame. What is more, my people were once surnamed Eyquem, a surname that also belongs to a well-known house in England. As for my other name, it belongs to anyone who cares to take it. So I may perhaps be honoring a porter in my place.
Et puis quand i’aurois vne merque particuliere pour moy, que peut elle merquer quand ie n’y suis plus? peut elle designer et fauorir l’inanité? Nunc leuior cippus non imprimit ossa / Laudat posteritas, nunc non è manibus illis, / Nunc non è tumulo fortunatáque fauilla / Nascuntur violæ? Mais de cecy i’en ay parlé ailleurs.
And then, even if I had a mark of my own, what can it mark when I am no longer there? Can it designate and favor emptiness? Does the gravestone not press more lightly on his bones now? / Posterity praises him: do not violets now spring / From those remains, from that tomb / And those blessed ashes? But I have spoken of this elsewhere.
Au demeurant en toute vne bataille où dix mill’ hommes sont stropiez ou tuez, il n’en est pas quinze dequoy lon parle. Il faut que ce soit quelque grandeur bien eminente, ou quelque consequence d’importance, que la Fortune y ait iointe, qui face valoir vn’ action priuée, non d’vn harquebuzier seulement, mais d’vn Capitaine: car de tuer vn homme, ou deux, ou dix, de se presenter courageusement à la mort, c’est à la verité quelque chose à chacun de nous, car il y va de tout: mais pour le monde, ce sont choses si ordinaires, il s’en voit tant tous les iours, et en faut tant de pareilles pour produire vn effect notable, que nous n’en pouuons attendre aucune particuliere recommendation.
For the rest, in a whole battle where ten thousand men are maimed or killed, there are not fifteen who get talked about. It must be some very eminent greatness, or some important consequence that Fortune has attached to it, that gives value to a private action—not only of an arquebusier, but of a captain. For to kill a man, or two, or ten, to face death bravely, is indeed something to each of us, since everything is at stake; but for the world these are such ordinary things, so many of them are seen every day, and it takes so many like them to produce a notable effect, that we cannot expect any special recognition from them.
Casus multis hic cognitus, ac iam / Tritus, et è medio fortunæ ductus aceruo.
A case known to many, already / Worn threadbare, drawn from the middle of Fortune’s heap.
De tant de miliasses de vaillans hommes qui sont morts depuis quinze cens ans en France, les armes en la main, il n’y en a pas cent, qui soyent venus à nostre cognoissance. La memoire non des chefs seulement, mais des battailles et victoires est enseuelie. Les fortunes de plus de la moitié du monde, à faute de registre, ne bougent de leur place, et s’esuanoüissent sans durée. Si i’auois en ma possession les euenemens incognus, i’en penserois tresfacilement supplanter les cognus, en toute espece d’exemples. Quoy, que des Romains mesmes, et des Grecs, parmy tant d’escriuains et de tesmoings, et tant de rares et nobles exploicts, il en est venu si peu iusques à nous?
Of the many thousands upon thousands of valiant men who have died in France over the last fifteen hundred years with arms in their hands, not a hundred have come to our knowledge. The memory not only of the leaders but of battles and victories is buried. The fortunes of more than half the world, for lack of a record, never stir from their place and vanish without lasting. If I had the unknown events in my possession, I think I could very easily supplant the known ones with them, in every kind of example. What! Even of the Romans and the Greeks, with so many writers and witnesses and so many rare and noble exploits, so few have come down to us?
Ad nos vix tenuis famæ perlabitur aura. Ce sera beaucoup si d’icy à cent ans on se souuient en gros, que de nostre temps il y a eu des guerres ciuiles en France. Les Lacedemoniens sacrifioient aux Muses entrans en battaille, afin que leurs gestes fussent bien et dignement escris, estimants que ce fust vne faueur diuine, et non commune, que les belles actions trouuassent des tesmoings qui leur sçeussent donner vie et memoire.
Barely a faint breath of their fame drifts down to us. It will be a great deal if, a hundred years from now, people remember in a general way that in our time there were civil wars in France. The Spartans sacrificed to the Muses as they went into battle, so that their deeds might be well and worthily written, considering it a divine and uncommon favor that fine actions should find witnesses able to give them life and memory.
Pensons nous qu’à chasque harquebusade qui nous touche, et à chasque hazard que nous courons, il y ait soudain vn greffier qui l’enrolle? et cent greffiers outre cela le pourront escrire, desquels les commentaires ne dureront que trois iours, et ne viendront à la veuë de personne. Nous n’auons pas la milliesme partie des escrits anciens; c’est la Fortune qui leur donne vie, ou plus courte, ou plus longue, selon sa faueur: et ce que nous en auons, il nous est loisible de doubter, si c’est le pire, n’ayans pas veu le demeurant.
Do we think that at every arquebus shot that hits us, and every risk we run, there is suddenly a clerk on hand to enter it in the rolls? And besides, a hundred clerks may write it down, and their accounts will last only three days and come before no one’s eyes. We do not have a thousandth part of ancient writings; it is Fortune who gives them life, shorter or longer according to her favor. And as for what we do have, we may well doubt whether it is the worst, since we have not seen the rest.
On ne fait pas des histoires de choses de si peu: il faut auoir esté chef à conquerir vn Empire, ou vn Royaume, il faut auoir gaigné cinquante deux battailles assignées, tousiours plus foible en nombre, comme Cæsar. Dix mille bons compagnons et plusieurs grands Capitaines, moururent à sa suitte, vaillamment et courageusement, desquels les noms n’ont duré qu’autant que leurs femmes et leurs enfans vesquirent: Quos fama obscura recondit. De ceux mesme, que nous voyons bien faire, trois mois, ou trois ans apres qu’ils y sont demeurez, il ne s’en parle non plus que s’ils n’eussent iamais esté.
Histories are not written about such trifles. One must have been the leader in conquering an empire or a kingdom; one must have won fifty-two pitched battles, always outnumbered, like Caesar. Ten thousand good comrades and many great captains died valiantly and courageously in his service, and their names lasted only as long as their wives and children lived: Whom an obscure fame hides away. Even of those we see do well, three months or three years after they have fallen, there is no more talk than if they had never existed.
Quiconque considerera auec iuste mesure et proportion, de quelles gens et de quels faits, la gloire se maintient en la memoire des liures, il trouuera qu’il y a de nostre siecle, fort peu d’actions, et fort peu de personnes, qui y puissent pretendre nul droict. Combien auons nous veu d’hommes vertueux, suruiure à leur propre reputation, qui ont veu et souffert esteindre en leur presence, l’honneur et la gloire tres-iustement acquise en leurs ieunes ans? Et pour trois ans de cette vie fantastique et imaginaire, allons nous perdant nostre vraye vie et essentielle, et nous engager à vne mort perpetuelle? Les sages se proposent vne plus belle et plus iuste fin, à vne si importante entreprise.
Whoever considers, with fair measure and proportion, what kind of people and what kind of deeds glory keeps alive in the memory of books will find that in our age there are very few actions and very few persons that can claim any right to it. How many virtuous men have we seen outlive their own reputation, who have seen and endured the extinction, before their very eyes, of the honor and glory they very justly earned in their youth? And for three years of this fanciful and imaginary life, are we to go and lose our true and essential life, and commit ourselves to a perpetual death? The wise set themselves a finer and juster end for so important an undertaking.
Rectè facti, fecisse merces est: Officij fructus, ipsum officium est. Il seroit à l’aduanture excusable à vn peintre ou autre artisan, ou encores à vn rhetoricien ou grammairien, de se trauailler pour acquerir nom, par ses ouurages: mais les actions de la vertu, elles sont trop nobles d’elles mesmes, pour rechercher autre loyer, que de leur propre valeur: et notamment pour la chercher en la vanité des iugemens humains.
The reward of a good deed is to have done it. The fruit of duty is duty itself. It might perhaps be excusable for a painter or some other craftsman, or even for a rhetorician or grammarian, to labor to win a name through his works. But the actions of virtue are too noble in themselves to seek any other wage than their own worth—and above all to seek it in the vanity of human judgments.
A useful falsehood
If the love of glory keeps men dutiful, lawgivers may feed it, as they fed people religious fables.
Si toute-fois cette fauce opinion sert au public à contenir les hommes en leur deuoir: si le peuple en est esueillé à la vertu: si les Princes sont touchez, de voir le monde benir la memoire de Traian, et abominer celle de Neron: si cela les esmeut, de voir le nom de ce grand pendart, autresfois si effroyable et si redoubté, maudit et outragé si librement par le premier escolier qui l’entreprend: qu’elle accroisse hardiment, et qu’on la nourrisse entre nous le plus qu’on pourra. Et Platon employant toutes choses à rendre ses citoyens vertueux, leur conseille aussi, de ne mespriser la bonne estimation des peuples.
If, however, this false opinion serves the public by keeping men to their duty; if the people are roused by it to virtue; if princes are moved to see the world bless the memory of Trajan and abhor that of Nero; if it stirs them to see the name of that great scoundrel, once so frightful and so dreaded, cursed and reviled so freely by the first schoolboy who takes it on—then let it grow boldly, and let us nourish it among us as much as we can. And Plato, using every means to make his citizens virtuous, also advises them not to despise the good esteem of the people.
Et dit, que par quelque diuine inspiration il aduient, que les meschans mesmes sçauent souuent tant de parole, que d’opinion, iustement distinguer les bons des mauuais. Ce personnage et son pedagogue sont merueilleux, et hardis ouuriers à faire ioindre les operations et reuelations diuines tout par tout où faut l’humaine force. Et pour cette cause peut estre, l’appelloit Timon en l’iniuriant, le grand forgeur de miracles. Vt traijei poetæ confugiunt ad Deum, cùm explicare argumenti exitum non possunt.
And he says that by some divine inspiration it happens that even the wicked often know how to distinguish the good from the bad rightly, both in word and in opinion. This man and his teacher are wonderful and bold workmen at bringing in divine operations and revelations wherever human strength falls short. And that is perhaps why Timon, insulting him, called him the great forger of miracles. As tragic poets take refuge in a god when they cannot work out the ending of their plot.
Puis que les hommes par leur insuffisance ne se peuuent assez payer d’vne bonne monnoye, qu’on y employe encore la fauce. Ce moyen a esté practiqué par tous les legislateurs: et n’est police, où il n’y ait quelque meslange, ou de vanité ceremonieuse, ou d’opinion mensongere, qui serue de bride à tenir le peuple en office. C’est pour cela que la pluspart ont leurs origines et commencemens fabuleux, et enrichis de mysteres supernaturels. C’est cela, qui a donné credit aux religions bastardes, et les a faictes fauorir aux gens d’entendement.
Since men, through their inadequacy, cannot be paid well enough in good coin, let counterfeit be used as well. This method has been practiced by all lawgivers, and there is no government without some admixture either of ceremonial vanity or of lying opinion, to serve as a bridle to keep the people to their duty. That is why most of them have fabulous origins and beginnings, enriched with supernatural mysteries. That is what has given credit to spurious religions and made men of understanding favor them.
Et pour cela, que Numa et Sertorius, pour rendre leurs hommes de meilleure creance, les paissoyent de cette sottise, l’vn que la nymphe Egeria, l’autre que sa biche blanche, luy apportoit de la part des Dieux, tous les conseils qu’il prenoit. Et l’authorité que Numa donna à ses loix soubs tiltre du patronage de cette Deesse, Zoroastre legislateur des Bactrians et des Perses, la donna aux siennes, soubs le nom du Dieu Oromazis: Trismegiste des Ægyptiens, de Mercure: Zamolxis des Scythes, de Vesta: Charondas des Chalcides, de Saturne: Minos des Candiots, de Iuppiter: Lycurgus des Lacedemoniens, d’Apollo: Dracon et Solon des Atheniens, de Minerue.
That is also why Numa and Sertorius, to make their men more believing, fed them this nonsense: the one that the nymph Egeria, the other that his white doe, brought him from the gods all the counsel he followed. And the authority that Numa gave his laws under the title of this goddess’s patronage, Zoroaster, lawgiver of the Bactrians and the Persians, gave to his under the name of the god Oromazes; Trismegistus of the Egyptians, under that of Mercury; Zamolxis of the Scythians, of Vesta; Charondas of the Chalcidians, of Saturn; Minos of the Cretans, of Jupiter; Lycurgus of the Spartans, of Apollo; Draco and Solon of the Athenians, of Minerva.
Et toute police a vn Dieu à sa teste: faucement les autres: veritablement celle, que Moïse dressa au peuple de Iudée sorty d’Ægypte. La religion des Bedoins, comme dit le sire de Iouinuille, portoit entre autres choses, que l’ame de celuy d’entre eux qui mouroit pour son Prince, s’en alloit en vn autre corps plus heureux, plus beau et plus fort que le premier: au moyen dequoy ils en hazardoyent beaucoup plus volontiers leur vie; In ferrum mens prona viris, animæque capaces / Mortis, et ignauum est redituræ parcere vitæ. Voyla vne creance tressalutaire, toute vaine qu’elle soit. Chasque nation a plusieurs tels exemples chez soy: mais ce subject meriteroit vn discours à part.
And every state has a god at its head: falsely, all the others; truly, the one that Moses set up for the people of Judea when they came out of Egypt. The religion of the Bedouins, as the Sire de Joinville says, held among other things that the soul of any one of them who died for his prince went into another body, happier, more beautiful and stronger than the first; and for that reason they risked their lives much more willingly: Men’s minds are eager for the sword, their souls able to face / Death, and it is cowardly to spare a life that will return. There is a very salutary belief, empty as it may be. Every nation has many such examples at home; but this subject would deserve a discussion of its own.
Pour dire encore vn mot sur mon premier propos: ie ne conseille non plus aux Dames, d’appeller honneur, leur deuoir, vt enim consuetudo loquitur, id solum dicitur honestum, quod est populari fama gloriosum: leur deuoir est le marc: leur honneur n’est que l’escorce. Ny ne leur conseille de nous donner cette excuse en payement de leur refus: car ie presuppose, que leurs intentions, leur desir, et leur volonté, qui sont pieces où l’honneur n’a que voir, d’autant qu’il n’en paroist rien au dehors, soyent encore plus reglées que les effects. Quæ, quia non liceat, non facit, illa facit. L’offence et enuers Dieu, et en la conscience, seroit aussi grande de le desirer que de l’effectuer.
To say one more word on my first subject: no more do I advise ladies to call their duty honor—for, as common usage has it, only that is called honorable which is glorious in popular repute. Their duty is the pith; their honor is only the bark. Nor do I advise them to give us this excuse in payment for their refusal. For I presuppose that their intentions, their desire and their will—parts honor has nothing to do with, since nothing of them shows outwardly—are even better regulated than their deeds. She who does not do it because she may not, does it. The offense, both toward God and in conscience, would be as great in desiring it as in doing it.
Et puis ce sont actions d’elles mesmes cachées et occultes, il seroit bien-aysé qu’elles en desrobassent quelqu’vne à la cognoissance d’autruy, d’où l’honneur depend, si elles n’auoyent autre respect à leur deuoir, et à l’affection qu’elles portent à la chasteté, pour elle mesme. Toute personne d’honneur choisit de perdre plus tost son honneur, que de perdre sa conscience.
And then these are actions hidden and secret in themselves. It would be easy for women to steal some of them from the knowledge of others, on which honor depends, if they had no other regard for their duty and for the love they bear chastity for its own sake. Every person of honor chooses to lose his honor rather than to lose his conscience.