588 TORMENTS INFLICTED IN ANCIENT AND LATER TIMES. cruelty; neither can our justice expect, that he, whom the fear of being executed by being beheaded or hang'd, will not restrain, should be any more aw'd by the imagination of a languishing fire, burning pincers, or the wheel. And I know not in the mean time, whether we do not throw them into despair; for in what condition can the soul of a man, expecting four and twenty hours together to be broken upon a wheel, or after the old way, nail'd to a cross, be? Josephus relates, that in the time of the war the Romans made in Judea, happening to pass by where they had three days before crucified certain Jews, he amongst them knew three of his own friends, and obtained the favour of having them taken down, of which, two, he says, died, the third liv'd a great while after. Chalcondylas, a writer of good credit, in the records he has left behind him of things that happen'd in his time, and near him, tells us, of the most excessive torment, that the emperour Mecmed very often practis'd, of cutting off men in the middle by the Diaphragma with one blow of a scimeter; by which it follow'd, that they died as it were two deaths at once, and both the one part, says he, and the other, were seen to stir and strive a great while after in very great torment. I do not think there was any great sufferance in this motion. The torments that are the most dreadful to look on, are not always the greatest to endure; and I find those that other historians relate to have been practis'd upon the Epirot lords, to be more horrid and cruel, where they were condemn'd to be flead alive by pieces, after so malicious a manner that they continued fifteen days in this misery. As also these other two following. Croesus, having caus'd a gentleman, the favourite of his brother Pantaleon, to be seized on, carryed him into a fuller's shop, where he caus'd him to be scratch'd and carded with the cards and combs belonging to that trade till he died. George Jechel, chief commander of the peasants of Polonia, who committed so many mischiefs under the title of the Crusado, being defeated in battel, and taken by the Vayvod of Transylvania, was three days bound naked upon the rack, exposed to all sorts of torments that any one could contrive against him; during which time, many other prisoners were kept fasting; in the end, he living, and looking on, they made his beloved brother Lucat (to whom he only entreated, taking upon himself the blame of all their evil actions) to drink his blood, and caused twenty of his most favour'd captains to feed upon him, tearing his flesh in pieces with their teeth, and swallowing the morsels. The remainder of his body and his bowels, so soon as he was dead, were boyl'd, and others of his followers compell'd to eat them. CHAP. LXXXV.-ALL THINGS HAVE THEIR SEASON. SUCH as compare Cato the Censor, with the younger Cato that kill'd himself, compare two beautiful natures, and much resembling one another. The first acquir'd his reputation several ways, and excells in military exploits, and the utility of his publick vocation; but the vertue of the younger, besides, that it were blasphemy to compare any to him in vigour, was much more pure and unblemish'd. For who can acquit the Censor of envy and ambition, having dar'd to justle the honour of Scipio, a man in worth, valour, and all other excellent qualities infinitely beyond him, or any other of his time? That which they report of him amongst other things, that in his extream old age he put himself upon learning the Greek tongue, with so greedy an appetite, as if to quench a long thirst, does not seem to me to make much for his honour; it being properly what we call being twice a child. All things have their season, even the best, and a man may say his Paternoster out of time; as they accused T. Quintus Flaminius, that being general of an army, he was seen praying apart in the time of a battel that he won. Imponit finem sapiens, et rebus honestis.-Juven. sat. 6. The wise man limits even decent things. Eudemonidas, seeing Xenocrates, when very old, still very intent upon his school-lectures, “When will this man be wise,” said he, “he does yet learn?" And Philopomen, to those who extoll'd king Ptolemy for every day inuring his person the exercise of arms; "It is not," said he, "commendable in a king of his age to exercise himself in those things, he ought not really to employ them." The young are to make preparations, the old to enjoy them, say the sages: we are always re-beginning to live. Our studies and desires should sometimes be sensible of age; Tu secanda marmora Locas sub ipsum funus, et sepulcri Immemor, struis demos.-Hor. l. 2. Ode. 18. When death perhaps is near at hand, Be cut for use; yet dost neglect Thy grave, and houses still erect.-Hawkins. The longest of my designs is not of above a years extent; I think of nothing now but ending; rid my self of all new hopes and enterprizes; take my last leave of every place I depart from, and every day disposses my self of what I have. "Olim jam nec perit quicquam mihi, nec acquiritur plus superest viatici, quam viæ."-Sen. Epist. "Hence 590 LET US STUDY WHAT IS SUITABLE TO OUR CONDITION. forward I will neither lose, nor expect to get: I have more wherewith to defray my journey than I have way to go." Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi.—Encid. I. 4. I've liv'd, and finish'd the career Wherein my fortune plac'd me here. To conclude, 'tis the only comfort I find in my old age, that it mortifies in me several cares and desires wherewith my life has been disturbed; the care how the world goes, the care of riches, of grandeur, of knowledge, of health, and my self. There are, who are learned to speak at a time when they should learn to be silent for ever. A man may always study, but he must not always go to school. What a contemptible thing is an old school-boy! Diversos diversa juvant, non omnibus annis For several things do several men delight, If we must study, let us study what is suitable to our present condition, that we may answer as he did, who being ask'd to what end he studied in his decrepid age; "that I may go out better," said he, "and at greater ease." Such a study was that of the younger Cato, feeling his end approach; and which he met with in Plato's discourse of the immortality of the soul: not as we are to believe that he was not long beforehand furnished with all sorts of ammunition for such a departure; for of assurance, an established will and instruction he had more than Plato had in all his writings; his knowledge and courage were in this respect above philosophy. He applied himself to this study, not for the service of his death, but as a man whose sleeps were never disturbed by the importance of such a deliberation, he also without choice or change, continued his studies with the other accustomary actions of his life. The night that he was deny'd the Prætorship, he spent in play. That wherein he was to die, he spent in reading. The loss either of life or office was all one to him. CHAP. LXXXVI.--OF VERTUE. I FIND by experience, that there is a vast difference betwixt the starts and sallies of the soul, and a resolute and constant habit; and very well perceive, that there is nothing we may not do, nay, even to the surpassing the divinity itself, says a certain person; forasmuch as it is more to render a mans self impassable by his own study and industry, than to be so by his natural condition; and even to be able to conjoyn to man's imbecility and frailty a God-like resolution and assurance. But it is by fits and starts; and in the lives of those heroes of times past there are sometimes miraculous sallies, and that seem infinitely to exceed our natural force, but they are indeed but sallies: and 'tis hard to believe, that in these so clevated qualities a man can so thoroughly tinct and imbue the soul, that they should become constant, and, as it were, natural in him. It accidentally happens even to us, who are but abortive births of men, sometimes to dart out our souls, when rous'd by the discourses or examples of others, much beyond their ordinary stretch; but 'tis a kind of passion which does push and prick them on, and in some sort ravishes them from themselves: but this whirl-wind once blown over, we see that they insensibly flag, and slacken of themselves, if not to the lowest degree, at least so as to be no more the same; insomuch as that upon every trivial occasion, the losing of a hawk, or the breaking of a glass, we suffer our selves to be mov'd little less than one of the common people. I am of opinion, that order, moderation and constancy excepted, all things are to be done by a man that is indifferent, and defective in general. Therefore it is, say the sages, that to make a right judgment of a man, you are chiefly to pry into his common actions, and surprise him in his everyday habit. Pyrrho, he who erected so pleasant a knowledge upon ignorance, endeavour'd, as all the rest who were really philosophers did, to make his life corres pond with his doctrine. And because he maintain'd the imbecility of human judgment to be so extream as to be incapable of any choice or inclination, and would have it wavering and suspended, considering and receiving all things as indifferent, 'tis said, that he always comported himself after the same manner and countenance: if he had begun a discourse, he would always end what he had to say, though the person he was speaking to, was gone away and if he walked, he never stop'd for any impediment that stood in his way, being preserv'd from precipices, the justle of carts, and other like accidents, by the care of his friends: for, to fear, or to avoid any thing, had been to justle his own propositions, which depriv'd the senses themselves of all certainty and election. Sometimes he suffered incisions and cauteries with so great constancy, as never to be seen so much, as to wince or stir. 'Tis something to bring the soul to these imaginations, more to joyn the effects, and yet not impossible ; but to coenjoy them with such perseverance and constancy, as to make them habitual, is certainly, in attempts so remote from the common usance, almost incredible to be done. Therefore it was, that being one day taken in his house terribly scolding with his sister, and being reproach'd that he therein transgress'd his own rules of indifference; "What," said he, "must this foolish woman also serve for a testimony to my rules?" Another time, being seen to defend himself against a dog. "It is," said he, "very 592 INDIAN WOMEN BURY THEMSELVES WITH THEIR HUSBANDS. hard totally to put off man; and we must endeavour and force our selves to resist and encounter things, first by effects, but at last by reason." A few days since, at Bergerac, within five leagues of my house, up the river Dordogne, a woman having over-night been beaten and abus'd by her husband, a cholerick ill-condition'd fellow, resolv'd to escape from his ill usage at the price of her life: and going so soon as she was up the next morning to visit her neighbours, as she was wont to do, and having let some words fall of the recommendation of her affairs, she took a sister of hers by the hand, and led her to the bridge; whither being come, as it were in jest, without any manner of alteration in her countenance, there taking leave of her, she threw her self headlong from the top into the river, and was there drown'd. That which is most remarkable in this, is, that this resolution was a whole night forming in her head but it is quite another thing with the Indian women, for it being the custom there for the men to have many wives, and the best beloved of them to kill her self at her husbands decease, every one of them makes it the business of her whole life to obtain this privilege, and gain this advantage over her companions, and the good offices they do their husbands, aim at no other recompence, but to be prefer'd in accompanying him in death. Ubi mortifero jacta est fax ultima lecto, Et certamen habent lethi quæ viva sequatur Imponuntque suis ora perusta viris.—Propertius l. 3. Eleg. 11. When to the pile they throw the kindling brand The pious wives with hair dishevell❜d stand, Striving which living shall accompany Her spouse, and are asham'd they may not die, Who are preferr'd, their breasts to flame expose, And their scorch'd lips to their dead husbands close. A certain author of our times, reports, that he has seen in those oriental nations this custom in practice, that not only the wives bury themselves with their husbands, but even the slaves also; which is done after this manner: the husband being dead, the widow may if she will (but few will) demand two or three months respite wherein to order her affairs. The day being come, she mounts on horse-back, dress'd as fine as at her wedding, and with a cheerful countenance says, she is going to sleep with her spouse, holding a looking-glass in her left hand, and an arrow in the other. Being thus conducted in pomp, accompanied with her kindred and friends, and a great concourse of people, with great joy, she is at last brought to the public place appointed for such spectacles: this is a spacious place, in the midst of which is a pit |