The Essays, vol 15 | Page 7

dissemble, that I evade the trust of another's secrets,
wanting the courage to disavow my knowledge. I can keep silent, but
deny I cannot without the greatest trouble and violence to myself
imaginable to be very secret, a man must be so by nature, not by
obligation. 'Tis little worth, in the service of a prince, to be secret, if a
man be not a liar to boot. If he who asked Thales the Milesian whether
he ought solemnly to deny that he had committed adultery, had applied
himself to me, I should have told him that he ought not to do it; for I
look upon lying as a worse fault than the other. Thales advised him
quite contrary, bidding him swear to shield the greater fault by the less;
[Montaigne's memory here serves him ill, for the question being put to
Thales, his answer was: "But is not perjury worse than
adultery?"--Diogenes Laertius, in vita, i. 36.]
nevertheless, this counsel was not so much an election as a
multiplication of vice. Upon which let us say this in passing, that we
deal liberally with a man of conscience when we propose to him some
difficulty in counterpoise of vice; but when we shut him up betwixt two
vices, he is put to a hard choice as Origen was either to idolatrise or to
suffer himself to be carnally abused by a great Ethiopian slave they
brought to him. He submitted to the first condition, and wrongly,
people say. Yet those women of our times are not much out, according
to their error, who protest they had rather burden their consciences with
ten men than one mass.
If it be indiscretion so to publish one's errors, yet there is no great
danger that it pass into example and custom; for Ariston said, that the
winds men most fear are those that lay them open. We must tuck up
this ridiculous rag that hides our manners: they send their consciences
to the stews, and keep a starched countenance: even traitors and
assassins espouse the laws of ceremony, and there fix their duty. So
that neither can injustice complain of incivility, nor malice of

indiscretion. 'Tis pity but a bad man should be a fool to boot, and that
outward decency should palliate his vice: this rough-cast only
appertains to a good and sound wall, that deserves to be preserved and
whited.
In favour of the Huguenots, who condemn our auricular and private
confession, I confess myself in public, religiously and purely: St.
Augustin, Origeti, and Hippocrates have published the errors of their
opinions; I, moreover, of my manners. I am greedy of making myself
known, and I care not to how many, provided it be truly; or to say
better, I hunger for nothing; but I mortally hate to be mistaken by those
who happen to learn my name. He who does all things for honour and
glory, what can he think to gain by shewing himself to the world in a
vizor, and by concealing his true being from the people? Praise a
humpback for his stature, he has reason to take it for an affront: if you
are a coward, and men commend you for your valour, is it of you they
speak? They take you for another. I should like him as well who
glorifies himself in the compliments and congees that are made him as
if he were master of the company, when he is one of the least of the
train. Archelaus, king of Macedon, walking along the street, somebody
threw water on his head, which they who were with him said he ought
to punish: "Aye, but," said he, "whoever it was, he did not throw the
water upon me, but upon him whom he took me to be." Socrates being
told that people spoke ill of him, "Not at all," said he, "there is nothing,
in me of what they say."
For my part, if any one should recommend me as a good pilot, as being
very modest or very chaste, I should owe him no thanks; and so,
whoever should call me traitor, robber, or drunkard, I should be as little
concerned. They who do not rightly know themselves, may feed
themselves with false approbations; not I, who see myself, and who
examine myself even to my very bowels, and who very well know what
is my due. I am content to be less commended, provided I am better
known. I may be reputed a wise man in such a sort of wisdom as I take
to be folly. I am vexed that my Essays only serve the ladies for a
common piece of furniture, and a piece for the hall; this chapter will
make me part of the water-closet. I love to