Produced by David Widger
ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Translated by Charles Cotton
Edited by William Carew Hazilitt
1877
CONTENTS OF VOLUME 13.
XXXII. Defence of Seneca and Plutarch.
XXXIII. The story of Spurina.
XXXIV. Means to carry on a war according to Julius Caesar.
XXXV. Of three good women.
XXXVI. Of the most excellent men.
XXXVII. Of the resemblance of children to their fathers.
CHAPTER XXXII
DEFENCE OF SENECA AND PLUTARCH
The familiarity I have with these two authors, and the assistance theyhave lent to my age and to my book, wholly compiled of what I haveborrowed from them, oblige me to stand up for their honour.
As to Seneca, amongst a million of little pamphlets that those of theso-called reformed religion disperse abroad for the defence of their cause(and which sometimes proceed from so good a hand, that 'tis pity his penis not employed in a better subject), I have formerly seen one, that tomake up the parallel he would fain find out betwixt the government of ourlate poor King Charles IX. and that of Nero, compares the late Cardinalof Lorraine with Seneca; their fortunes, in having both of them been theprime ministers in the government of their princes, and in their manners,conditions, and deportments to have been very near alike. Wherein, in myopinion, he does the said cardinal a very great honour; for though I amone of those who have a very high esteem for his wit, eloquence, and zealto religion and the service of his king, and his good fortune to havelived in an age wherein it was so novel, so rare, and also so necessaryfor the public good to have an ecclesiastical person of such high birthand dignity, and so sufficient and capable of his place; yet, to confessthe truth, I do not think his capacity by many degrees near to the other,nor his virtue either so clean, entire, or steady as that of Seneca.
Now the book whereof I speak, to bring about its design, gives a veryinjurious description of Seneca, having borrowed its approaches from Dionthe historian, whose testimony I do not at all believe for besides thathe is inconsistent, that after having called Seneca one while very wise,and again a mortal enemy to Nero's vices, makes him elsewhere avaricious,an usurer, ambitious, effeminate, voluptuous, and a false pretender tophilosophy, his virtue appears so vivid and vigorous in his writings, andhis vindication is so clear from any of these imputations, as of hisriches and extraordinarily expensive way of living, that I cannot believeany testimony to the contrary. And besides, it is much more reasonableto believe the Roman historians in such things than Greeks andforeigners. Now Tacitus and the rest speak very honourably both of hislife and death; and represent him to us a very excellent and virtuousperson in all things; and I will allege no other reproach against Dion'sreport but this, which I cannot avoid, namely, that he has so weak ajudgment in the Roman affairs, that he dares to maintain Julius Caesar'scause against Pompey [And so does this editor. D.W.], and that of Antonyagainst Cicero.
Let us now come to Plutarch: Jean Bodin is a good author of our times,and a writer of much greater judgment than the rout of scribblers of hisage, and who deserves to be read and considered. I find him, though, alittle bold in this passage of his Method of history, where he accusesPlutarch not only of ignorance (wherein I would have let him alone: forthat is beyond my criticism), but that he "ofte