Produced by David Widger
Translated by Charles Cotton
Edited by William Carew Hazilitt
1877
XVIII. Of giving the lie.
XIX. Of liberty of conscience.
XX. That we taste nothing pure.
XXI. Against idleness.
XXII. Of Posting.
XXIII. Of ill means employed to a good end.
XXIV. Of the Roman grandeur.
XXV. Not to counterfeit being sick.
XXVI. Of thumbs.
XXVII. Cowardice the mother of cruelty.
XXVIII. All things have their season.
XXIX. Of virtue.
XXX. Of a monstrous child.
XXXI. Of anger.
Well, but some one will say to me, this design of making a man's self thesubject of his writing, were indeed excusable in rare and famous men, whoby their reputation had given others a curiosity to be fully informed ofthem. It is most true, I confess and know very well, that a mechanicwill scarce lift his eyes from his work to look at an ordinary man,whereas a man will forsake his business and his shop to stare at aneminent person when he comes into a town. It misbecomes any other togive his own character, but him who has qualities worthy of imitation,and whose life and opinions may serve for example: Caesar and Xenophonhad a just and solid foundation whereon to found their narrations, thegreatness of their own performances; and were to be wished that we hadthe journals of Alexander the Great, the commentaries that Augustus,Cato, Sylla, Brutus, and others left of their actions; of such personsmen love and contemplate the very statues even in copper and marble.This remonstrance is very true; but it very little concerns me:
"Non recito cuiquam, nisi amicis, idque coactus;
Non ubivis, coramve quibuslibet, in medio qui
Scripta foro recitant, sunt multi, quique lavantes."
["I repeat my poems only to my friends, and when bound to do so;
not before every one and everywhere; there are plenty of reciters
in the open market-place and at the baths."—Horace, sat. i. 4, 73.]
I do not here form a statue to erect in the great square of a city, in achurch, or any public place:
"Non equidem hoc studeo, bullatis ut mihi nugis,
Pagina turgescat……
Secreti loquimur:"
["I study not to make my pages swell with empty trifles;
you and I are talking in private."—Persius, Sat., v. 19.]
'tis for some corner of a library, or to entertain a neighbour,a kinsman, a friend, who has a mind to renew his acquaintance andfamiliarity with me in this image of myself. Others have been encouragedto speak of themselves, because they found the subject worthy and rich;I, on the contrary, am the bolder, by reason the subject is so poor andsterile that I cannot be suspected of ostentation. I judge freely of theactions of others; I give little of my own to judge of, because they arenothing: I do not find so much good in myself, that I cannot tell itwithout blushing.
What contentment would it not be to me to hear any one thus relate to methe manners, faces, countenances, the ordinary words and fortunes of myancestors? how attentively should I listen to it! In earnest, it wouldbe evil nature to despise so much as the pictures of our friends andpredecessors, the fashion of their clothes and arms. I