1575

                                     ESSAYS

                             by Michel de Montaigne

                          translated by Charles Cotton

                                  I.

                  OF CUSTOM, AND THAT WE SHOULD NOT

                    EASILY CHANGE A LAW RECEIVED.

    HE seems to have had a right and true apprehension of the power of
custom, who first invented the story of a countrywoman who, having
accustomed herself to play with and carry, a young calf in her arms,
and daily continuing to do so as it grew up, obtained this by
custom, that, when grown to be a great ox, she was still able to
bear it. For, in truth, custom is a violent and treacherous
schoolmistress. She, by little and little, slily and unperceived,
slips in the foot of her authority, but having by this gentle and
humble beginning, with the benefit of time, fixed and established
it, she then unmasks a furious and tyrannic countenance, against which
we have no more the courage or the power so much as to lift up our
eyes. We see her, at every turn, forcing and violating the rules of
nature: "Usus efficacissimus rerum omnium magister." I refer to her
Plato's cave in his Republic, and the physicians, who so often
submit the reasons of their art to her authority; as the story of that
king, who by custom brought his stomach to that pass, as to live by
poison, and the maid that Albertus reports to have lived upon spiders.
In that new world of the Indies, there were found great nations, and
in very differing climates, who were of the same diet, made
provision of them, and fed them for their tables; as also, they did
grasshoppers, mice, lizards, and bats; and in a time of scarcity of
such delicacies, a toad was sold for six crowns, all which they
cook, and dish up with several sauces. There were also others found,
to whom our diet, and the flesh we eat, were venomous and mortal.
"Consuetudinis magna vis est: pernoctant venatores in nive: in
montibus uri se patiuutur: pugiles coestibus contusi, ne ingemiscunt
quidem."

    These strange examples will not appear so strange if we consider
what we have ordinary experience of, how much custom stupefies our
senses. We need not go to what is reported of the people about the
cataracts of the Nile; and what philosophers believe of the music of
the spheres, that the bodies of those circles being solid and
smooth, and coming to touch and rub upon one another, cannot fail of
creating a marvelous harmony, the changes and cadences of which
cause the revolutions and dances of the stars; but that the hearing
sense of all creatures here below, being universally, like that of the
Egyptians, deafened, and stupefied with the continual noise, cannot,
how great soever, perceive it. Smiths, millers, pewterers, forgemen
and armorers could never be able to live in the perpetual noise of
their own trades, did it strike their ears with the same violence that
it does ours.

    My perfumed doublet gratifies my own smelling at first; but
after I have worn it three days together, 'tis only pleasing to the
bystanders. This is yet more strange, that custom, notwithstanding
long intermissions and intervals, should yet have the power to unite
and establish the effect of its impressions upon our senses, as is
manifest in such as live near unto steeples and the frequent noise
of the bells. I myself lie at home in a tower, where every morning and
evening a very great bell rings out the Ave Maria: the noise shakes my
very tower, and at first seemed insupportable to me; but I am so
used to it, that I hear it without any manner of offense, and often
without awaking at it.

    Plato reprehending a boy for playing at nuts, "Thou reprovest me,"
says the boy, "for a very little thing." "Custom," replied Plato,
"is no little thing." I find that our greatest vices derive their
first propensity from our most tender infancy, and that our
principal education depends upon the nurse. Mothers are mightily
pleased to see a child writhe off the neck of a chicken, or to please
itself with hurting a dog or a cat; and such wise fathers there are in
the world, who look upon it as a notable mark of a martial spirit,
when they hear a son miscall, or see him domineer over a poor peasant,
or a lackey, that dares not reply, nor turn again; and a great sign of
wit, when they see him cheat and overreach his playfellow by some
malicious treachery and deceit. Yet these are the true seeds and roots
of cruelty, tyranny, and treason; they bud and put out there, and
afterward shoot up vigorously, and grow to prodigious bulk, cultivated
by custom. And it is a very dangerous mistake to excuse these vile
inclinations upon the tenderness of their age, and the triviality of
the subject; it is nature that speaks, whose declaration is then
more sincere, and inward thoughts more undisguised, as it is more weak
and young; secondly, the deformity of cozenage does not consist nor
depend upon the difference between crowns and pins; but I rather
hold it more just to conclude thus: why should he not cozen in
crowns since he does it in pins, than as they do, who say they only
play for pins, they would not do it if it were for money? Children
should carefully be instructed to abhor vices for their own
contexture; and the natural deformity of those vices ought so to be
represented to them, that they may not only avoid them in their
actions, but especially so to abominate them in their hearts, that the
very thought, should be hateful to them, with what mask soever they
may be disguised.

    I know very well, for what concerns myself, that from having