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BOOK III, CHAPTER V 13
a liar. Celuy qui s’enquestoit 4 Thales Milesius s'il devoit solemnellement nier d’avoir paillardé, s’il se fut addressé & moy, je luy eusse respondu qu'il ne le devoit pas faire, car le mentir me semble encore pire que la paillardise. Thales con- seilla tout autrement, et qu’il jurast, pour garentir le plus par le moins.' Toutesfois ce conseil n’estoit pas tant election de vice que multiplication. Sur quoy, disons ce mot en pas- sant, qu'on faict bon marché a un homme de conscience quand on luy propose quelque difficulté au contrepois du vice; mais, quand on |’enferme entre deux vices, on le met & un rude chois, comme on fit Origene: ou qu’il idolatrast, ou qu'il se souffrit jouyr charnellement a un grand vilain fEthiopien qu’on luy presenta. II subit la premiere condi- tion, et vitieusement, dict on.*? Pourtant ne seroient pas sans goust, selon leur erreur, celles qui nous protestent, en ce temps, qu’elles aymeroient mieux charger leur conscience de dix hommes que d’une messe.
Whether it be indiscreet or not thus to publish one’s errors, there is no great danger that it will become a pre- cedent and custom; for Aristo said that the winds that men most fear are those that uncover them.*? We must tuck away this absurd old mantle that hides our nature. Men send their conscience to the brothel and keep their demean- our in good order. Even traitors and assassins bind them- selves by conventional laws and connect with them what they are doing; § nevertheless, it is not for what is unlawful to blame what is anti-social, (c) nor for deceit to find fault with indiscretion. It is a pity that a sinful man is not a fool as well and that decency palliates his vice. Such facings * befit only a good sound wall, which deserves to be preserved and to be whitened.
1 See Diogenes Laertius, Life of Thales.
1 See Nicephorus, Ecclesiastical History, V, 32.
- See Plutarch, Of Curiosity.
4 Nos meurs.
' Espousent les loix de ia ceremonie et attachent /é leur devoir. The thought in this puzzling sentence seems to be that even criminals con- nect their deeds with external propriety; but it is not for those who sin against the law to find fault with those who (in their eyes) sin against society. .
§ Imerustations.