登陆注册
15677000000268

第268章

But how it comes to pass I know not, and yet it is certainly so, there is as much vanity and weakness of judgment in those who profess the greatest abilities, who take upon them learned callings and bookish employments as in any other sort of men whatever; either because more is required and expected from them, and that common defects are excusable in them, or because the opinion they have of their own learning makes them more bold to expose and lay themselves too open, by which they lose and betray themselves. As an artificer more manifests his want of skill in a rich matter he has in hand, if he disgrace the work by ill handling and contrary to the rules required, than in a matter of less value; and men are more displeased at a disproportion in a statue of gold than in one of plaster; so do these when they advance things that in themselves and in their place would be good; for they make use of them without discretion, honouring their memories at the expense of their understandings, and making themselves ridiculous by honouring Cicero, Galen, Ulpian, and St.

Jerome alike.

I willingly fall again into the discourse of the vanity of our education, the end of which is not to render us good and wise, but learned, and she has obtained it. She has not taught us to follow and embrace virtue and prudence, but she has imprinted in us their derivation and etymology; we know how to decline Virtue, if we know not how to love it; if we do not know what prudence is really and in effect, and by experience, we have it however by jargon and heart: we are not content to know the extraction, kindred, and alliances of our neighbours; we desire, moreover, to have them our friends and to establish a correspondence and intelligence with them; but this education of ours has taught us definitions, divisions, and partitions of virtue, as so many surnames and branches of a genealogy, without any further care of establishing any familiarity or intimacy betwixt her and us. It has culled out for our initiatory instruction not such books as contain the soundest and truest opinions, but those that speak the best Greek and Latin, and by their fine words has instilled into our fancy the vainest humours of antiquity.

A good education alters the judgment and manners; as it happened to Polemon, a lewd and debauched young Greek, who going by chance to hear one of Xenocrates' lectures, did not only observe the eloquence and learning of the reader, and not only brought away, the knowledge of some fine matter, but a more manifest and more solid profit, which was the sudden change and reformation of his former life. Whoever found such an effect of our discipline?

"Faciasne, quod olim Mutatus Polemon? ponas insignia morbi Fasciolas, cubital, focalia; potus ut ille Dicitur ex collo furtim carpsisse coronas, Postquam est impransi correptus voce magistri?"

["Will you do what reformed Polemon did of old? will you lay aside the joys of your disease, your garters, capuchin, muffler, as he in his cups is said to have secretly torn off his garlands from his neck when he heard what that temperate teacher said?"--Horace, Sat., ii. 3, 253]

That seems to me to be the least contemptible condition of men, which by its plainness and simplicity is seated in the lowest degree, and invites us to a more regular course. I find the rude manners and language of country people commonly better suited to the rule and prescription of true philosophy, than those of our philosophers themselves:

"Plus sapit vulgus, quia tantum, quantum opus est, sapit."

["The vulgar are so much the wiser, because they only know what is needful for them to know."--Lactantms, Instit. Div., iii. 5.]

The most remarkable men, as I have judged by outward appearance (for to judge of them according to my own method, I must penetrate a great deal deeper), for soldiers and military conduct, were the Duc de Guise, who died at Orleans, and the late Marshal Strozzi; and for men of great ability and no common virtue, Olivier and De l'Hospital, Chancellors of France. Poetry, too, in my opinion, has flourished in this age of ours; we have abundance of very good artificers in the trade: D'Aurat, Beza, Buchanan, L'Hospital, Montdore, Turnebus; as to the French poets, I believe they raised their art to the highest pitch to which it can ever arrive; and in those parts of it wherein Ronsard and Du Bellay excel, I find them little inferior to the ancient perfection. Adrian Turnebus knew more, and what he did know, better than any man of his time, or long before him. The lives of the last Duke of Alva, and of our Constable de Montmorency, were both of them great and noble, and that had many rare resemblances of fortune; but the beauty and glory of the death of the last, in the sight of Paris and of his king, in their service, against his nearest relations, at the head of an army through his conduct victorious, and by a sudden stroke, in so extreme old age, merits methinks to be recorded amongst the most remarkable events of our times.

As also the constant goodness, sweetness of manners, and conscientious facility of Monsieur de la Noue, in so great an injustice of armed parties (the true school of treason, inhumanity, and robbery), wherein he always kept up the reputation of a great and experienced captain.

I have taken a delight to publish in several places the hopes I have of Marie de Gournay le Jars, [She was adopted by him in 1588. See Leon Feugere's Mademoiselle de Gournay: 'Etude sur sa Vie et ses Ouvrages'.] my adopted daughter; and certainly beloved by me more than paternally, and enveloped in my retirement and solitude as one of the best parts of my own being: I have no longer regard to anything in this world but her.

And if a man may presage from her youth, her soul will one day be capable of very great things; and amongst others, of the perfection of that sacred friendship, to which we do not read that any of her sex could ever yet arrive; the sincerity and solidity of her manners are already sufficient for it, and her affection towards me more than superabundant, and such, in short, as that there is nothing more to be wished, if not that the apprehension she has of my end, being now five-and-fifty years old, might not so much afflict her. The judgment she made of my first Essays, being a woman, so young, and in this age, and alone in her own country; and the famous vehemence wherewith she loved me, and desired my acquaintance solely from the esteem she had thence of me, before she ever saw my face, is an incident very worthy of consideration.

Other virtues have had little or no credit in this age; but valour is become popular by our civil wars; and in this, we have souls brave even to perfection, and in so great number that the choice is impossible to make.

This is all of extraordinary and uncommon grandeur that has hitherto arrived at my knowledge.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 东临医妃传

    东临医妃传

    一觉醒来,变成了乐丞相家的四小姐乐思凝。当没办法再睡回到老家的时候,她决定继续坚守现代的职业——医生。冒充神医随父进宫替皇上看病,却碰上东临国人人惧怕的安宁王——凌郁霄。好撒,从不沾女色的凌郁霄,正是她乐思凝梦寐以求的盘中菜、床头伴。她正心心念念的想办法如何将他擒之,他却送上门来,她决定成全他的计谋——于是,她先下手为强。待生米煮成熟饭,她和他策划未来,哪知道,帝位争夺的暴风雨才刚刚开始。【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 南朝往事书

    南朝往事书

    你有否听过徐娘半老的典故?你可知“旧时王谢”是如何湮没在时间之中?你又知否中国有一个时代才子钟爱涂脂抹粉,贵妇爱开沙龙茶会?你又知不知辉煌宏大的盛唐文化在那个时代奠基成形也几乎在那个时代付之一炬?南朝往事书,跨越一千多年的时光,走近萧衍、萧绎、徐昭佩、陈霸先、侯景、韩子高、陈蒨、陈顼……这些或青史留名,或遗臭万年的帝王后妃、将军文臣、皇亲贵族,无限去还原接近中古中国那个最奢靡绮丽又最动荡不安的最后的贵族社会。
  • 超级英雄到我家

    超级英雄到我家

    “历史留名的英雄们啊……都来了?”赵星看着自己身后的二哥、李元霸、项羽等人,默默的感叹了一句。
  • 蔷薇化骑士

    蔷薇化骑士

    酱酱酱,不知道说啥好了,就这样吧,恢复更新233333
  • 欲念难安

    欲念难安

    这真不是剧透。1.看着见面每一天就将自己的初吻夺走的男人他彻底愣住了,然后一把推开,开始擦嘴唇。他才不是同性恋!2.看着眼前这个笑得不坏好意男人,他不由的感觉后*一凉。谁来救救他,他不想再被摧残了。这是一篇先校园后都市的文。外表呆萌实则腹黑透顶的妖孽攻x外表温雅俊逸实则爱炸毛的清水受。大宠小虐欢迎跳坑。眨眼/我保证绝对不是BE也绝对不会弃文。
  • TFBOYS消失的爱

    TFBOYS消失的爱

    TFBOYS消失的爱是一本讲述现代恋爱观的一本书,来阅读这本书,带你一起走进恋爱的世界
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 万世武朝

    万世武朝

    一代帝王从巅峰到被自己的妃子刺杀,留下了多少遗憾,机缘与巧合使得这位帝王重生转世,是皇位的权利还是人心的险恶,还是位面之争。
  • 大姐,嫁给我吧

    大姐,嫁给我吧

    向洁捷冷漠的企业总裁,却有个十八九岁的未婚夫,除了要保住未婚夫霍凌南的家业,还要教这个小孩子成长,到底是老婆还是老妈?人家小孩还不乐意?向洁捷看着他们两个的姿势,气息终于有点乱“你快放开,你不是说我是老大姐吗,我年纪这么大你还愿意抱,我看你心里变态吧!”霍凌南听了这话放开了向洁捷,笑了”我靠,这么远也听得见。还真不是个正常人,大姐,你自己在这玩吧,老子不奉陪了。“
  • 娃娃皇后

    娃娃皇后

    穿越前,她是学啥啥不会的差等生。穿越后,她是人人谈之色变的恶魔女。六年后,爹爹做了丞相,我被选为当朝皇后。如果你穿越了,还做了皇后,才知道你只有十天可以活,你是接受还是抗争?她云安安,决不将自己的命运交由他人掌控。本文纯属虚构,请勿模仿。