Produced by David Widger
Translated by Charles Cotton
Edited by William Carew Hazilitt
1877
I. Of Profit and Honesty.
II. Of Repentance.
III. Of Three Commerces.
IV. Of Diversion.
No man is free from speaking foolish things; but the worst on't is, whena man labours to play the fool:
"Nae iste magno conatu magnas nugas dixerit."
["Truly he, with a great effort will shortly say a mighty trifle."
—-Terence, Heaut., act iii., s. 4.]
This does not concern me; mine slip from me with as little care as theyare of little value, and 'tis the better for them. I would presentlypart with them for what they are worth, and neither buy nor sell them,but as they weigh. I speak on paper, as I do to the first person I meet;and that this is true, observe what follows.
To whom ought not treachery to be hateful, when Tiberius refused it in athing of so great importance to him? He had word sent him from Germanythat if he thought fit, they would rid him of Arminius by poison: thiswas the most potent enemy the Romans had, who had defeated them soignominiously under Varus, and who alone prevented their aggrandisementin those parts.
He returned answer, "that the people of Rome were wont to revengethemselves of their enemies by open ways, and with their swords in theirhands, and not clandestinely and by fraud": wherein he quitted theprofitable for the honest. You will tell me that he was a braggadocio; Ibelieve so too: and 'tis no great miracle in men of his profession. Butthe acknowledgment of virtue is not less valid in the mouth of him whohates it, forasmuch as truth forces it from him, and if he will notinwardly receive it, he at least puts it on for a decoration.
Our outward and inward structure is full of imperfection; but there isnothing useless in nature, not even inutility itself; nothing hasinsinuated itself into this universe that has not therein some fit andproper place. Our being is cemented with sickly qualities: ambition,jealousy, envy, revenge, superstition, and despair have so natural apossession in us, that its image is discerned in beasts; nay, andcruelty, so unnatural a vice; for even in the midst of compassion we feelwithin, I know not what tart-sweet titillation of ill-natured pleasure inseeing others suffer; and the children feel it:
"Suave mari magno, turbantibus aequora ventis,
E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem:"
["It is sweet, when the winds disturb the waters of the vast sea, to
witness from land the peril of other persons."—Lucretius, ii. I.]
of the seeds of which qualities, whoever should divest man, would destroythe fundamental conditions of human life. Likewise, in all governmentsthere are necessary offices, not only abject, but vicious also. Vicesthere help to make up the seam in our piecing, as poisons are useful forthe conservation of health. If they become excusable because they are ofuse to us, and that the common necessity covers their true qualities, weare to resign this part to the strongest and boldest citizens, whosacrifice their honour and conscience, as others of old sacrificed theirlives, for the go