Of wisdom three books / written originally in French by the Sieur de Charron ; with an account of the author, made English by George Stanhope ...

CHAP. XXIX. Revenge.

[unspec 1] THE Desire of Revenge is, in the first place, a cowardly and esseminate Passion; an Argument of a weak and sordid, a narrow and abject Soul; and accordingly Experience teaches us, that Wo∣men and Children, and such others as have mani∣festly the feeblest Minds, are ever the most mali∣cious, and dispos'd to Revenge. Brave and Gene∣rous Minds feel little of these Resentments: They despise and scorn it; either because an Injury, when done to them, does not make any great Impression; or that the Person who does it, is not thought considerable enough to give them any Disturbance; but so it is, that they feel them∣selves above any Commotions of this kind, as the Poet says,

* 1.1A Wretch beneath the mighty Caesar's notice.

Hail, and Thunder, Hurricanes and Tempests, and Earthquakes, all these disorderly Agitations, and loud Ratlings, which we see, and feel, and hear, are form'd in these lower Regions of the Air; They never discompose, or in any Degree affect the Heavenly Bodies and higher Orbs; All there is quiet, and constant, and serene; These frail, and corruptible, and grosser Bodies only are they that suffer by them. And thus it is with the Rage and Folly, the Noise and Brawlings, the Impudence and Impotent Malice of Fools: They never shake great Souls, nor carry so far as lofty and gene∣rous Minds: An Alexander or a Caesar, an Epa∣minondas or a Scipio, cannot be mov'd by all that such mean Wretches could do or say: For all truly Brave Men, and these in particular, have been so far from meditating Revenge, that, on the con∣trary, they were remarkable for doing good to their Enomies.

[unspec 2] Secondly, This is a very troublesome and rest∣less Passion, full of Heat, full of Smart and Sting; it boyls and bubbles in the Breast, and gnaws the Heart like a Viper; distracts the Men in∣fected, disturbs their Enjoyments, takes off the Peace and Comfort of their Days, and breaks the Sleep of their Nights.

[unspec 3] It is also a Passion full of Injustice; for it tortures an innocent Person, and adds Grief and Pain to Him, that was wounded and afflicted before. It is properly the Party's Business who commit∣ted the Offence, to labour under the Remorse and the Punishment; and all those other ill Con∣sequences,

which the Desire of Revenge unavoi∣dably draws after it. And yet by this, the Suf∣foring and Guiltless Party makes it his Care to load himself with these heavy Burdens, as if the receiving of the Injury were not of it self Af∣fliction sufficient, without such voluntary and stu∣died Aggravations. Thus it happens frequently, (generally indeed) that, while the Innocent and Injur'd is racking himself with the impatient De∣sires, and the Contrivance of proper Methods for Revenge, the guilty Aggressour enjoys himself in Ease and Pleasure, and perhaps makes the Other's Uneasiness a Jest and a Diversion. But This is only the Beginning of Mischiefs and Injustice; for the Means of putting such Desires in execution are yet insinitely more so; which indeed are of all, of any kinds; Baseness and Treachery, Per∣jury and Subornation, a secret Stab, or an Am∣buscade of Russians; in short, the foulest, black∣est, and most Villanous Designs: For one peculiar ill Effect of this Vice is, that it extinguishes all Natural Justice, breaks through all the Restraints of Honour and Duty, and sticks at no Practice, tho' never so foul and detestable, to accomplish its Bloody Intentions.

[unspec 4] Lastly. The very Execution of these Designs, is not only painful and difficult; but extremely dan∣gerous: For Experience shews us daily, that he who endeavours to revenge himself, does not ef∣fect his whole Wish, nor is in every Point succes∣ful: Either he meets with a Defeat, and cannot do the Mischief he wou'd; or at least he is dis∣appointed as to his own Security and Satisfaction, and suffers the Mischief he wou'd not. He at∣tempts to put out One of his Enemy's Eyes, and at the same time puts out Both his own. He renders himself obnoxious to Justice, and brings Trouble and Danger to all his Friends; is lost to

the World, and to his own Quiet; fore'd to hide and flee from Place to Place, and is every where dogg'd close at the Heels by his own guil∣ty Fears.

[unspec 5] And after all; the Killing an Enemy, and dis∣patching him out of the way, may be Cruelty; but it is not properly Revenge: For a Man does then only take Satisfaction and Revenge, when he Hum∣bles his Enemy, and forces him to Suffering and Submission; not when he puts him past all Suffer∣ing, and out of the reach of his Anger; the ren∣dring of which Sensible and Painful, is the only End Revenge can propose to it self. Accordingly we see, no Man is so vain and absurd, to fall foul upon a Stone, or a Brute; because he knows these cannot feel, or cannot consider the Effects of his Rage. In all true Revenge, it is necessary, that the Person who executes it, shou'd receive some Satisfaction in the Pains he inflicts; and that the Person, on whom it is inflicted, should feel the Smart, and be humbled by the Sorrow, and pay so dear for the Injury he hath done, that he may be made to repent it. But a Man that is killed, is out of any condition of Grief or Repentance; he is indeed from thenceforth esse∣ctually secur'd from all manner of Sussering: Whereas, on the contrary, the Revenger himself continues in a Capacity of both, and oftentimes feels the Weight of his own Displeasure, by a State of fix'd Sorrow and Fear ever after. Killing then is only a Betraying of our Cowardise. It is the Consequence of our being afraid, that the Person we intend to punish, shou'd Resent to our Preju∣dice, and take an opportunity of paying us again in our own Coin. We are willing from these Apprehensions to make an End of him at once, and rid our selves from any future Hazard; which is indeed to quit our Point, to lose the End of

Revenge, and cast a Blemish upon our own Re∣putation. It is an Artifice, and an act of Cauti∣on, rather than of Courage; It is an Intention to make sure Work, and consults our Safety much more than our* 1.2 Honour.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Indignus Caesaris Ira.
• * 1.2

  Quioccidit longè, non ulciscitur, nee gloriam assequitur.