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to The Journal of English and Germanic Philology
471
In the third Elegy, called Change, he develops the same idea with
less hyperbole and gayety. Donne is not here putting his
cleverness to a test, but rather seriously examining the phil
osophy of Change and pronouncing it true.
Waters stincke soone, if in one place they bide,
And in the vast sea are more putrifi'd:
But when they kisse one banke, and leaving this
Never looke backe, but the next banke doe kisse,
Then are they purest; Change is the nursery
Of musicke, joy, life, and eternity.11
9 Idem. I, 13.
10 Idem. I, 36. Cf. Communitic, p. 32; and Farewell to love, pp. 70-1.
11 Idem. I, S3.
12 Courthope, Hist, of Eng. Poetry, III, 154.
IG Voigt, Moritz, Die Lehre vom jus naturale, aeqitum et bonum und jus
gentium der R?mer, 4 vols., Leipzig (1856); Janet, Paul, Histoire de la Science
Politique, 4th ed., Paris (1913); Gierke, Otto, Political Theories of the Middle
Age, trans. Maitland, Cambridge (1900); Figgis, J. N., From Gerson to Grotius,
Cambridge (1907); Dunning, W. A., History of Political Theories, Ancient ami
Medicvd, \\ Y. (1902); Carlyle, R. W., and A. J., History of Medieval Political
Theory, N. Y. (1903-16); Troeltsch, Ernst, Das stoischchristliche Naturrecht und
das moderne profane Naturrecht, Historische Zeitschrift, vol. 106 (1911), 237-267.
17 Cicero, De Finibus, Book IT, 30.
reveal the divinity that is innate in him. But this celestial and
divine nature of man is expressed also in the universal recogni
tion of such virtues as temperance and courage, and in the
rooted reverence for God which is "in al men by nature, wythout
any other instructyon."
Thes vertues, and other lyke, whereby man, of nature meke, gentyl, and
ful of humanyte, ys inclynyd and sterryd to cyuyle ordur and louyng curnpany,
wyth honeste behauyour both toward God and man, are by the power of nature
in the hart of man rotyd and plantyd, and by no vayn opynyon or fansy con
ceyuyed.32
the ordynance of thes lawys, the other sone wylbe corrupt, the wedys wyl sone
ouergrow the gud corne. Thy s law cyuyle is fer d y fi?rent from the other;
for in euery cuntrey hyt y s dyuersc and varyabul, ye almost in euery cyte and
towne. Thy s law takyth effecte of the opynyon of man, hyt restyth holly in
hys consent, and varyth accordyng to the place and tyme, in so much that in
dyuerse tyme and place contrary lawys are both gud, and both conuenyent to
the polytyke lyfe. Wher as the law of nature ys euer one, in al cuntreys fyrme
and stabul, and neuer for the tyme varyth; hyt ys neuer chaungeabul; the
consent of man doth no thyng therto; hyt hangyth no thyng of tyme nor place,
but accordyng as ryght reson ys euer one, so ys thys law, and neuer varyth
aftur the fansy of man.34
cognita sunt
turn genus h
Book V, 1011
V
How Montaigne arrived at his philosophy blended of sce
cism and naturalism, has been admirably set forth by M. Vi
to whose work all discussions of Montaigne must hencefort
indebted.65 Montaigne began as an adherent of Stoici
which, with Platonism, had been interwoven with Chri
thought and become a part of Renaissance idealism in
personal and political ethics. But Stoicism was not long to
taste. His nature was too supple for its restraints, and
easy and tolerant to submit long to its discipline or to feel
the attractiveness of its elevation. Montaigne had a genero
sympathy with all human impulses; he abhorred life cut t
pattern. It is probable therefore that his development wou
have been what it was, though perhaps slower and less disti
had he never gone through a definite intellectual crisis.
his apostacy from Stoicism was hastened when about
he became enthusiastic over Greek scepticism, as expou
in the Hypotyposes of Sextus Empiricus. Early in 1576 he
a medal struck in honor of Sextus, with his own imag
the reverse side. Ten of the inscriptions in his library he
from the Hypotyposes; from the same source he makes m
than a score of borrowings for his most philosophical essa
the Apology. The Sceptics he called "le plus sage parti
philosophes."66
For a short period, Montaigne, under the influence of t
philosophy of Sextus, regarded custom and tradition a
best guide. But such a philosophy is a worse tyranny t
Stoicism, and contains in itself the acid of dissolution;
taigne soon passed through it, to his third and mature
osophy of individualism based on "Nature." Nature
meant to him primarily his own nature, which he regarde
his own unique lawgiver. Therefore he studied himself mo
than any philosophy, his desires, his tastes, the needs of
own individuality, and his essays are the observations he m
of his own physiology and psychology. Distrustful of
speculation in ethical idealism, thoroughly sceptical regard
conventions and traditions, he followed nature in everyth
66 Villey, Pierre, Les Sources et V'Evolution des Essais de Montaigne. 2 vo
Paris (1908).
66 Villey, op. cit. 1,218.
"Law es take their authoritie from possession and cus tome: It is dangerous
to reduce them to their beginning: In rowling on, they swell, and grow greater
and greater, as doe our rivers: follow them upward, unto their source, and
you shall find them but a bubble of water, scarce to be discerned, which in
gliding on swelleth so proud, and gathers so much strength. Behold the ancient
considerations, which have given the first motion to this famous torrent, so full
of dignitie, of honour and reverence, you shall find them so light and weake, that
these men which will weigh all, and complaine of reason, and who receive
nothing upon trust and authoritie, it is no wonder if their judgements are
often far-distant from common judgement. Alen that take Natures first image
for a patterne, it is no marvaile, if in most of their opinions, they misse the
common-beaten path. As for example; few amongst them would have approved
the forced conditions of our marriages and most of them would have had women
in community, and without any private respect."74
74 Florio, ed. cit. II, 307. With this passage compare especially the
following lines from Donne's Elegy XVII:
"Our liberty's revers'd, our Charter's gone,
And we're made servants to opinion,
A monster in no certain shape attir'd,
And whose originall is much desir'd,
Formlesse at first, but goeing on it fashions,
And doth prescribe manners and laws to nations.
Here love receiv'd immedicable harms . . ."
76 Florio, ed. cit. Ill, 322.
w Florio, ed. cit. Ill, 329.
are but little bastardized by ours, and that with such puritie, as I am some
times grieved the knowledge of it came no sooner to light, at what time there
were men, that better than we could have judged of it. I am sorie, Lycurgus
and Plato had it not: for me seemeth that what in those nations we see by
experience, doth not only exceed all the pictures wherewith licentious Poesie
hath proudly imbellished the golden age, and all her quaint inventions to
faine a happy condition of man, but also the conception and desire of Phil
osophy. They could not imagine a genuitie so pure and simple, as we see it
by experience; nor ever beleeve our societie might be maintained with so little
art and humane combination. It is a nation, would I answer Plato, that hath
no kinde of traffike, no knowledge of Letters, no intelligence of numbers, no
name of magistrate, nor of politike superioritie; no use of service, of riches or
of povertie; no contracts, no successions, no partitions, no occupations but
idle; no respect of kindred, but common, no appareil but naturall, no manuring
of lands, no use of wine, corne, or mettel. The very words that import lying,
falshood, treason, dissimulations, covetousness, envie, detraction, and pardon,
were never heard of amongst them. How dissonant would hee finde his imagi
narie commonwealth from this perfection!"77
81 Cotton imitated him. See Sembower, C. J., Life and Poetry of Charles
Cotton, N. Y. (1911). pp. 88-94.
82 For instance, Francis Beaumont's The Indi?erent and Love's Freedome;
Goe catch a star, in Wits Recreations (1640); and Carew's Rapture.
83 Carew, Poems. Muses' Library, p. 219. Carew also wrote two poems
(pp. 160, 163) against the naturalistic code of morals. Whether sincere or not,
the poems serve as proof of the currency of such ideas.