The Essays, vol 7 | Page 9

religion. Emmanuel, the successor of John, being come to the
crown, first set them at liberty, and afterwards altering his mind,
ordered them to depart his country, assigning three ports for their
passage. He hoped, says Bishop Osorius, no contemptible Latin
historian of these later times, that the favour of the liberty he had given
them having failed of converting them to Christianity, yet the difficulty

of committing themselves to the mercy of the mariners and of
abandoning a country they were now habituated to and were grown
very rich in, to go and expose themselves in strange and unknown
regions, would certainly do it. But finding himself deceived in his
expectation, and that they were all resolved upon the voyage, he cut off
two of the three ports he had promised them, to the end that the length
and incommodity of the passage might reduce some, or that he might
have opportunity, by crowding them all into one place, the more
conveniently to execute what he had designed, which was to force all
the children under fourteen years of age from the arms of their fathers
and mothers, to transport them from their sight and conversation, into a
place where they might be instructed and brought up in our religion. He
says that this produced a most horrid spectacle the natural affection
betwixt the parents and their children, and moreover their zeal to their
ancient belief, contending against this violent decree, fathers and
mothers were commonly seen making themselves away, and by a yet
much more rigorous example, precipitating out of love and compassion
their young children into wells and pits, to avoid the severity of this law.
As to the remainder of them, the time that had been prefixed being
expired, for want of means to transport them they again returned into
slavery. Some also turned Christians, upon whose faith, as also that of
their posterity, even to this day, which is a hundred years since, few
Portuguese can yet rely; though custom and length of time are much
more powerful counsellors in such changes than all other constraints
whatever. In the town of Castelnaudari, fifty heretic Albigeois at one
time suffered themselves to be burned alive in one fire rather than they
would renounce their opinions.
"Quoties non modo ductores nostri, sed universi etiam exercitus, ad non
dubiam mortem concurrerunt?"
["How often have not only our leaders, but whole armies, run to a
certain and manifest death."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., i. 37.]
I have seen an intimate friend of mine run headlong upon death with a
real affection, and that was rooted in his heart by divers plausible
arguments which he would never permit me to dispossess him of, and

upon the first honourable occasion that offered itself to him, precipitate
himself into it, without any manner of visible reason, with an obstinate
and ardent desire of dying. We have several examples in our own times
of persons, even young children, who for fear of some little
inconvenience have despatched themselves. And what shall we not fear,
says one of the ancients--[Seneca, Ep., 70.]--to this purpose, if we
dread that which cowardice itself has chosen for its refuge?
Should I here produce a long catalogue of those, of all sexes and
conditions and sects, even in the most happy ages, who have either with
great constancy looked death in the face, or voluntarily sought it, and
sought it not only to avoid the evils of this life, but some purely to
avoid the satiety of living, and others for the hope of a better condition
elsewhere, I should never have done. Nay, the number is so infinite that
in truth I should have a better bargain on't to reckon up those who have
feared it. This one therefore shall serve for all: Pyrrho the philosopher
being one day in a boat in a very great tempest, shewed to those he saw
the most affrighted about him, and encouraged them, by the example of
a hog that was there, nothing at all concerned at the storm. Shall we
then dare to say that this advantage of reason, of which we so much
boast, and upon the account of which we think ourselves masters and
emperors over the rest of all creation, was given us for a torment? To
what end serves the knowledge of things if it renders us more unmanly?
if we thereby lose the tranquillity and repose we should enjoy without it?
and if it put us into a worse condition than Pyrrho's hog? Shall we
employ the understanding that was conferred upon us for our greatest
good to our own ruin; setting ourselves against the design of nature and
the universal order of things, which intend that every one should make
use of the faculties, members, and means