of the first blood[1] are as firm as butchers by occupation; and votary[2] resolution is made equipollent[3] to custom even in matter of blood. In other things the predominancy of custom is every where visible; insomuch as a man would wonder to hear men profess, protest, engage, give great words, and then do just as they have done before; as if they were dead images, and engines moved only by the wheels of custom. We see also the reign or tyranny of custom, what it is. The Indians (I mean the sect of their wise men) lay themselves quietly upon a stack of wood, and so sacrifice themselves by fire. Nay the wives strive to be burned with the corpses of their husbands. The lads of Sparta,[4] of ancient time, were wont to be scourged upon the altar of Diana, without so much as queching.[5] I remember, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's[6] time of England, an Irish rebel condemned, put up a petition to the Deputy that he might be hanged in a with,[7] and not in an halter; because it had been so used with former rebels. There be monks in Russia, for penance, that will sit a whole night in a vessel of water, till they be engaged[8] with hard ice. Many examples may be put of the force of custom, both upon mind
- ↑ The translation has primæ classis sicarii; (murderers of the first class): which seems to me to miss the meaning of the English. "Men of the first blood" must mean here, men whose hands have not been in blood before. S.
- ↑ Votary. Consecrated by a vow.
- ↑ Equipollent. Equivalent.
- ↑ M. Tullii Ciceronis Tusculanarum Disputationum ad M. Brutum Liber II. Caput 14.
- ↑ Quech, or quitch, means to flinch, to shrink.
- ↑ Elizabeth, 1533–1603, Queen of England, 1558–1603.
- ↑ With, withe. A willow twig; a band of twigs. "And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man." Judges xvi. 7.
- ↑ Engaged with. Held in.
