little more advanced than the rest of his squadron, do appear to me so

much just as strange; and I should neither advise nor like to follow so

savage a virtue, and that costs so dear.

--["Opinions differ as to the truth of this fact. Livy thinks he

has good authority for rejecting it because it does not appear in

history that Posthumious was branded with it, as Titus Manlius was,

about 100 years after his time; for Manlius, having put his son to

death for the like cause, obtained the odious name of Imperiosus,

and since that time Manliana imperia has been used as a term to

signify orders that are too severe; Manliana Imperia, says Livy,

were not only horrible for the time present, but of a bad example to

posterity. And this historian makes no doubt but such commands

would have been actually styled Posthumiana Imperia, if Posthumius

had been the first who set so barbarous an example (Livy, lib. iv.

cap. 29, and lib. viii. cap. 7). But, however, Montaigne has Valer.

Maximus on his side, who says expressly, that Posthumius caused his

son to be put to death, and Diodorus of Sicily (lib. xii. cap.

The archer that shoots over, misses as much as he that falls short, and

'tis equally troublesome to my sight, to look up at a great light, and

to look down into a dark abyss. Callicles in Plato says, that the

extremity of philosophy is hurtful, and advises not to dive into it

beyond the limits of profit; that, taken moderately, it is pleasant and

useful; but that in the end it renders a man brutish and vicious, a

contemner of religion and the common laws, an enemy to civil

conversation, and all human pleasures, incapable of all public

administration, unfit either to assist others or to relieve himself, and

a fit object for all sorts of injuries and affronts. He says true; for

in its excess, it enslaves our natural freedom, and by an impertinent

subtlety, leads us out of the fair and beaten way that nature has traced

The love we bear to our wives is very lawful, and yet theology thinks fit

to curb and restrain it. As I remember, I have read in one place of St.

Thomas Aquinas,--[Secunda Secundx, Quaest. 154, art. 9.]--where he

condemns marriages within any of the forbidden degrees, for this reason,

amongst others, that there is some danger, lest the friendship a man

bears to such a woman, should be immoderate; for if the conjugal

affection be full and perfect betwixt them, as it ought to be, and that

it be over and above surcharged with that of kindred too, there is no

doubt, but such an addition will carry the husband beyond the bounds of

Those sciences that regulate the manners of men, divinity and philosophy,

will have their say in everything; there is no action so private and

secret that can escape their inspection and jurisdiction. They are best

taught who are best able to control and curb their own liberty; women

expose their nudities as much as you will upon the account of pleasure,

though in the necessities of physic they are altogether as shy. I will,