The Price of Compromise — The Essays of Montaigne

Montaigne says no man is free from foolish speech, but the worst is labouring to play the fool; his own slips pass cheaply because he neither buys nor sells words beyond their weight.

Treachery should revolt even when profitable: Tiberius refused poison for Arminius, saying Romans revenge with swords in hand, not fraud, and thereby quitted the profitable for the honest, though Montaigne grants he may have been a braggadocio.

Governments need vicious offices; the weak take easier parts while the bold sacrifice honour like lives for the public weal. Montaigne mediated between Navarre and Guise with stiff opinion, no bribes, and vehement sincerity that passed for simplicity; Hyperides offered anything but secrets, and Montaigne would hold one candle to St. Michael and another to his dragon when need pressed, yet follow the right side exclusively if he could.

He reports indifferent truths to both parties, keeps few secrets, and will not be an instrument of deceit; counterfeit liberty aping sincerity, like Aesop's ass clapping forefeet on his master, soon earns the cudgel. Laws have chosen his master, but his hand obeys public commission, not private appetite; innocence itself cannot now negotiate without some dissimulation.

When legitimacy fails, princes hire Pomponius Flaccus to trap Rhescuporis' rival, then punish traitors once used: Jaropelk, Antigonus, Sylla, Clovis, and Mohammed II. show employers often destroy the very hands that served dirty work.

Judges who cozen confessions with false pardon bait wound justice itself; Montaigne hates deceiving through himself or being deceived by princes. Sylla taxed redeemed cities after taking their money; the pedagogue whips the scholar for docility.

Timoleon wept for killing his brother though Syracuse later sent him to clear tyrants, judging him by how he behaved afterward. Epaminondas married tenderness to war, sparing friends even in battle; Montaigne abominates Lucan's mad exhortation to mutilate a father's face mid-fight.

He will not assassinate or poison for notable service, answering like a Lacedaemonian that ruinous taxes may be imposed but shameful commands are vain. Princes who command dishonour accuse the instrument; the daughter of Sejanus was ravished before execution because virginity blocked the law.

Utility and honesty are named apart because society calls some necessary acts foul; robbers' oaths still bind once fear leaves the tongue. Marriage is society's most necessary institution, yet councils design those horses for stallions of which they have the least esteem.