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 been brought up in my childhood to a
plain and straightforward way of dealing, and from having had an aversion to
all manner of juggling and foul play in my childish sports and recreations
(and, indeed, it is to be noted, that the plays of children are not performed
in play, but are to be judged in them as their most serious actions), there is
no game so small wherein from my own bosom naturally, and without study or
endeavor, I have not an extreme aversion for deceit. I shuffle and cut and make
as much clatter with the cards, and keep as strict account for farthings, as it
were for double pistoles; when winning or losing against my wife and daughter,
'tis indifferent to me, as when I play in good earnest with others, for round
sums. At all times, and in all places, my own eyes are sufficient to look to my
fingers; I am not so narrowly watched by any other, neither is there any I have
more respect to.