Produced by David Widger
Translated by Charles Cotton
Edited by William Carew Hazilitt
1877
XIII. The ceremony of the interview of princes.
XIV. That men are justly punished for being obstinate in the defence
of a fort that is not in reason to be defended
XV. Of the punishment of cowardice.
XVI. A proceeding of some ambassadors.
XVII. Of fear.
XVIII. That men are not to judge of our happiness till after death.
XIX. That to study philosophy is to learn to die.
XX. Of the force of imagination.
XXI. That the profit of one man is the damage of another.
There is no subject so frivolous that does not merit a place in thisrhapsody. According to our common rule of civility, it would be anotable affront to an equal, and much more to a superior, to fail beingat home when he has given you notice he will come to visit you. Nay,Queen Margaret of Navarre—[Marguerite de Valois, authoress of the'Heptameron']—further adds, that it would be a rudeness in a gentlemanto go out, as we so often do, to meet any that is coming to see him, lethim be of what high condition soever; and that it is more respectful andmore civil to stay at home to receive him, if only upon the account ofmissing him by the way, and that it is enough to receive him at the door,and to wait upon him. For my part, who as much as I can endeavour toreduce the ceremonies of my house, I very often forget both the one andthe other of these vain offices. If, peradventure, some one may takeoffence at this, I can't help it; it is much better to offend him oncethan myself every day, for it would be a perpetual slavery. To what enddo we avoid the servile attendance of courts, if we bring the sametrouble home to our own private houses? It is also a common rule in allassemblies, that those of less quality are to be first upon the place, byreason that it is more due to the better sort to make others wait andexpect them.
Nevertheless, at the interview betwixt Pope Clement and King Francis atMarseilles,—[in 1533.]—the King, after he had taken order for thenecessary preparations for his reception and entertainment, withdrew outof the town, and gave the Pope two or three days' respite for his entry,and to repose and refresh himself, before he came to him. And in likemanner, at the assignation of the Pope and the Emperor,—[Charles V. in1532.] at Bologna, the Emperor gave the Pope opportunity to come thitherfirst, and came himself after; for which the reason given was this, thatat all the interviews of such princes, the greater ought to be first atthe appointed place, especially before the other in whose territories theinterview is appointed to be, intimating thereby a kind of deference tothe other, it appearing proper for the less to seek out and to applythemselves to the greater, and not the greater to them.
Not every country only, but every city and every society has itsparticular forms of civility. There was care enough to this taken in myeducation, and I have lived in good company enough to know theformalities of our own nation, and am able to give lessons in it. I loveto follow them, but not to be so servilely tied to their observation thatmy whole life should be enslaved to ceremonies, of which there are someso troublesome that, provided a man omits them out of discretion, and notfor want of breeding, it will be every whit as handsome. I