The works of F. Rabelais, M.D., or, The lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel with a large account of the life and works of the author, particularly an explanation of the most difficult passages in them never before publish'd in any language / done out of French by Sir Tho. Urchard, Kt., and others.

CHAP. XVI. How Pantagruel adviseth Panurge to consult with the Sibyl of Panzoust.

A Little while thereafter Pantagruel sent for Panurge, and said unto him, The Affection which I bear you being now inveterate, and setled in my Mind by a long continuance of time, prom∣pteth me to the serious consideration of your Welfare and Profit; in order where∣to remark what I have thought thereon: It hath been told me that at Panzoust near Crouly, dwelleth a very famous Sibyl, who is endowed with the skill of foretelling all things to come. Take Epestimon in your Company, repair towards her, and hear what she will say unto you. She is

possibly (quoth Epistemon) she is some Canidia, Sagane or Pythonisse, either where∣of with us is vulgarly called a Witch. I being the more easily induced to give Credit to the truth of this Character of her, that the place of her Abode is vilely stained with the abominable repute of abounding more with Sorcerers and Witches than ever did the Plains of Thessaly. I should not, to my thinking, go thither willingly, for that it seems to me a thing unwarrantable, and altogether forbidden in the Law of Moyses. We are not Iews, (quoth Pantagruel) nor is it a matter judi∣ciously confess'd by her, nor authentical∣ly proved by others that she is a Witch. Let us for the present suspend our Judg∣ment, and defer till after your return from thence, the sifting and garbeling of those Niceties. Do we know but that she may be an Eleventh Sibyl, or a Second Cassan∣dra? But although she were neither, and she did not merit the Name or Title of any of these Renowned Prophetesses, what Hazard, in the Name of God, do you run, by offering to talk and confer with her of the instant Perplexity and Perturbation of your Thoughts? Seeing especially (and which is most of all) she is in the Estimation of those that are ac∣quainted with her, held to know more,

and to be of a deeper reach of Under∣standing, than is either customary to the Country wherein she liveth, or to the Sex whereof she is. What hindrance, hurt or harm doth the laudable desire of Knowledge bring to any Man, were it from a Sot, a Pot, a Fool, a Stool, a Winter Mittam, a Truckle for a Pully, the Lid of a Goldsmiths Crucible, an Oil-Bottle, or old Slipper? You may re∣member to have read, or heard at least, that Alexander the Great, immediately af∣ter his having obtained a glorious Victo∣ry over the King Darius in Arbeles, refused in the Presence of the splendid and illu∣strious Courtiers that were about him, to give Audience to a poor certain despica∣ble-like Fellow, who through the Soilicita∣tions and Mediatio•• of some of his Royal Attendants▪ was admitted humbly to beg that Grace and Favour of him: But sore did he repent, although in vain, a thou∣sand and ten thousand times thereafter, the surly State which he then took upon him to the Denial of so just a Suit, the Grant whereof would have been worth unto him the value of a Brace of potent Cities. He was indeed Victorious in Per∣sia, but withal so far distant from Macedo∣nia, his Hereditary Kingdom, that the Joy of the one did not expel the extream

Grief, which through occasion of the o∣ther he had inwardly conceived; for not being able with all his Power to find or invent a convenient Mean and Expedient, how to get or come by the certainty of any News from thence; both by reason of the huge remoteness of the places from one to another, as also because of the impe∣ditive Interposition of many great Rivers, the interjacent Obstacle of divers wild Deserts, and obstructive Interjection of sundry almost inaccessible Mountains. Whilst he was in this sad quandary and sollicitous pensiveness, which, you may sup∣pose, could not be of a small Vexation to him; considering that it was a matter of no great difficulty to run over his whole Native Soil, possess his Country, seize on his Kingdom, install a new King in the Throne, and plant thereon Foreign Co∣lonies, long before he could come to have any Advertisement of it. For obviating the Jeopardy of so dreadful Inconveniency, and putting a fit Remedy thereto, a cer∣tain Sydonian Merchant of a low Stature, but high Fancy, very poor in shew, and to the outward appearance of little or no Account, having presented himself be∣fore him, went about to affirm and de∣clare, that he had excogitated and hit up∣on a ready mean and way, by the which

those of his Territories at home should come to the certain notice of his Indian Victories, and himself be perfectly in∣formed of the state and condition of Egypt and Macedonia within less then five days. Whereupon the said Alexander, plunged into a sullen Animadvertency of mind, through his rash Opinion of the Improba∣bility of performing a so strange and impossible-like Undertaking, dismissed the Merchant without giving ear to what he had to say, and villify'd him. What could it have cost him to hearken unto what the honest Man had invented and contrived for his good? What Detriment, Annoyance, Damage or Loss could he have undergone to listen to the Discovery of that Secret, which the good Fellow would have most willingly revealed unto him? Nature, I am perswaded, did not without a cause frame our Eyes open, putting there∣to no Gate at all, nor shutting them up with any manner of Inclosures, as she hath done unto the Tongue, the Eyes, and other such out-jetting parts of the Body: The Cause, as I imagine, is, to the end that every Day and every Night, and that ••ontinually, we may be ready to hear, and by a perpetual hearing apt to learn: For of all the Senses, it is the fit∣test for the reception of the knowledge

of Arts, Sciences and Disciplines; and it may be, that Man was an Angel, (that is to say, a Messenger sent from God) as Raphael was to Toby. Too suddenly did he contemn, despise and misregard him; but too long thereafter, by an untimely and too late Repentance did he do Pennance for it. You say very well, (answered E∣pistemon) yet shall you never for all that induce me to believe, that it can tend any way to the Advantage or Commodity of a Man, to take Advice and Counsel of a Woman, namely, of such a Woman, and the Woman of such a Country. Truly I have found (quoth Panurge) a great deal of good in the Counsel of Women, chiefly in that of the Old Wives amongst them; who for every time I consult with them, I readily get a Stool or two extraordinary, to the great Solace of my Bum-gut pas∣sage. They are as Slothounds in the In∣fallibility of their Scent, and in their Say∣ings no less Sententious than the Rubricks of the Law. Therefore in my Conceit it is not an improper kind of Speech to call them Sage or Wise Women. In confir∣mation of which Opinion of mine, the customary style of my Language allow∣eth them the Denomination of Presage Women. The Epithet of Sage is due un∣to them, because they are surpassing dex∣trous

in the knowledge of most things· And I give them the Title of Presage, for that they Divinely foresee, and certainly foretel future Contingencies, and Events of things to come. Sometimes I call them not Maunettes, but Monettes, from their wholsom Monitions. Whether it be so, ask Pythagoras, Socrates, Empedocles, and our Master Ortuinus. I furthermore praise and commend above the Skies the ancient memorable Institution of the pri∣stine Germans, who ordained the Responces and Documents of Old Women to be highly extolled, most cordially reveren∣ced, and prised at a rate, in nothing in∣feriour to the weight, test and standerd of the Sanctuary: And as they were re∣spectfully prudent in receiving of these sound Advices, so by honouring and fol∣lowing them did they prove no less fortu∣nate in the happy Success of all their En∣deavours. Witness the Old Wife Antinia, and the good Mother Villed, in the days of Vespasian. You need not any way doubt, but that Feminine Old Age is al∣ways fructifying in Qualities Sublime, I would have said Sibylline. Let us go, by the help; let us go, by the Vertue. God, let us go. Farewel, Friar Iohn, I recom∣mend the care of my Codpiece to you. Well, (quoth Epistemon) I will follow you,

with this protestation nevertheless, that if I happen to get a sure information, or otherways find, that she doth use any kind of Charm or Enchantment in her Responses, it may not be imputed to me for a blame to leave you at the Gate of her House, without accompanying you any further in.