Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete
CONTENTS
The present publication is intended to supply a recognised deficiency in our literature—a library edition of the Essays of Montaigne. This great French writer deserves to be regarded as a classic, not only in the land of his birth, but in all countries and in all literatures. His Essays, which are at once the most celebrated and the most permanent of his productions, form a magazine out of which such minds as those of Bacon and Shakespeare did not disdain to help themselves; and, indeed, as Hallam observes, the Frenchman’s literary importance largely results from the share which his mind had in influencing other minds, coeval and subsequent. But, at the same time, estimating the value and rank of the essayist, we are not to leave out of the account the drawbacks and the circumstances of the period: the imperfect state of education, the comparative scarcity of books, and the limited opportunities of intellectual intercourse. Montaigne freely borrowed of others, and he has found men willing to borrow of him as freely. We need not wonder at the reputation which he with seeming facility achieved. He was, without being aware of it, the leader of a new school in letters and morals. His book was different from all others which were at that date in the world. It diverted the ancient currents of thought into new channels. It told its readers, with unexampled frankness, what its writer’s opinion was about men and things, and threw what must have been a strange kind of new light on many matters but darkly understood. Above all, the essayist uncased himself, and made his intellectual and physical organism public property. He took the world into his confidence on all subjects. His essays were a sort of literary anatomy, where we get a diagnosis of the writer’s mind, made by himself at different levels and under a large variety of operating influences.
Of all egotists, Montaigne, if not the greatest, was the most fascinating, because, perhaps, he was the least affected and most truthful. What he did, and what he had professed to do, was to dissect his mind, and show us, as best he could, how it was made, and what relation it bore to external objects. He investigated his mental structure as a schoolboy pulls his watch to pieces, to examine the mechanism of the works; and the result, accompanied by illustrations abounding with originality and force, he delivered to his fellow-men in a book.
Michel de Montaigne
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1877
PREFACE
THE LIFE OF MONTAIGNE
I.——To Monsieur de MONTAIGNE
II.——To Monseigneur, Monseigneur de MONTAIGNE.
III.——To Monsieur, Monsieur de LANSAC,
VII.——To Mademoiselle de MONTAIGNE, my Wife.
VIII.——To Monsieur DUPUY,
IX.——To the Jurats of Bordeaux.
X.——To the same.
—[The original is among the archives of Toulouse.]
XI.——To the same.
XII.
XIII.——To Mademoiselle PAULMIER.
XIV.——To the KING, HENRY IV.
XV.——To the same.
XVI.——To the Governor of Guienne.
ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Translated by Charles Cotton
Edited by William Carew Hazlitt
1877
CHAPTER I——THAT MEN BY VARIOUS WAYS ARRIVE AT THE SAME END.
CHAPTER II——OF SORROW
CHAPTER III——THAT OUR AFFECTIONS CARRY THEMSELVES BEYOND US.
CHAPTER VI——THAT THE HOUR OF PARLEY DANGEROUS
CHAPTER VII——THAT THE INTENTION IS JUDGE OF OUR ACTIONS
CHAPTER VIII——OF IDLENESS
CHAPTER IX——OF LIARS
CHAPTER X——OF QUICK OR SLOW SPEECH
CHAPTER XI——OF PROGNOSTICATIONS
CHAPTER XII——OF CONSTANCY
CHAPTER XIII——THE CEREMONY OF THE INTERVIEW OF PRINCES
CHAPTER XV——OF THE PUNISHMENT OF COWARDICE
CHAPTER XVI——A PROCEEDING OF SOME AMBASSADORS
CHAPTER XVII——OF FEAR
CHAPTER XIX——THAT TO STUDY PHILOSOPY IS TO LEARN TO DIE
CHAPTER XX——OF THE FORCE OF IMAGINATION
CHAPTER XXIII——VARIOUS EVENTS FROM THE SAME COUNSEL
CHAPTER XXIV——OF PEDANTRY
CHAPTER XXV——OF THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
TO MADAME DIANE DE FOIX, Comtesse de Gurson
CHAPTER XXVII——OF FRIENDSHIP
TO MADAME DE GRAMMONT, COMTESSE DE GUISSEN.
CHAPTER XXIX——OF MODERATION
CHAPTER XXX——OF CANNIBALS
The inconstancy and various motions of Fortune
CHAPTER XXXIV——OF ONE DEFECT IN OUR GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER XXXV——OF THE CUSTOM OF WEARING CLOTHES
CHAPTER XXXVI——OF CATO THE YOUNGER
CHAPTER XXXVII——THAT WE LAUGH AND CRY FOR THE SAME THING
CHAPTER XXXVIII——OF SOLITUDE
CHAPTER XXXIX——A CONSIDERATION UPON CICERO
CHAPTER XLI——NOT TO COMMUNICATE A MAN’S HONOUR
CHAPTER XLII——OF THE INEQUALITY AMOUNGST US.
CHAPTER XLIII——OF SUMPTUARY LAWS
CHAPTER XLIV——OF SLEEP
CHAPTER XLV——OF THE BATTLE OF DREUX
CHAPTER XLVI——OF NAMES
CHAPTER XLVII——OF THE UNCERTAINTY OF OUR JUDGMENT
Well says this verse:
CHAPTER XLVIII——OF WAR HORSES, OR DESTRIERS
CHAPTER XLIX——OF ANCIENT CUSTOMS
CHAPTER L——OF DEMOCRITUS AND HERACLITUS
CHAPTER LI——OF THE VANITY OF WORDS
CHAPTER LII——OF THE PARSIMONY OF THE ANCIENTS
CHAPTER LIII——OF A SAYING OF CAESAR
CHAPTER LIV——OF VAIN SUBTLETIES
CHAPTER LV——OF SMELLS
CHAPTER LVI——OF PRAYERS
CHAPTER LVII——OF AGE
BOOK THE SECOND
CHAPTER I——OF THE INCONSTANCY OF OUR ACTIONS
CHAPTER II——OF DRUNKENNESS
CHAPTER III——A CUSTOM OF THE ISLE OF CEA
CHAPTER IV——TO-MORROW’S A NEW DAY
CHAPTER V——OF CONSCIENCE
CHAPTER VI——USE MAKES PERFECT
CHAPTER VII——OF RECOMPENSES OF HONOUR
CHAPTER VIII——OF THE AFFECTION OF FATHERS TO THEIR CHILDREN
To Madame D’Estissac.
CHAPTER IX——OF THE ARMS OF THE PARTHIANS
CHAPTER X——OF BOOKS
CHAPTER XI——OF CRUELTY
CHAPTER XII. — APOLOGY FOR RAIMOND SEBOND.
CHAPTER XIII——OF JUDGING OF THE DEATH OF ANOTHER
CHAPTER XIV——THAT OUR MIND HINDERS ITSELF
CHAPTER XV——THAT OUR DESIRES ARE AUGMENTED BY DIFFICULTY
CHAPTER XVI——OF GLORY
CHAPTER XVII——OF PRESUMPTION
CHAPTER XVIII——OF GIVING THE LIE
CHAPTER XIX——OF LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE
CHAPTER XX——THAT WE TASTE NOTHING PURE
CHAPTER XXI——AGAINST IDLENESS
CHAPTER XXII——OF POSTING
CHAPTER XXIII——OF ILL MEANS EMPLOYED TO A GOOD END
CHAPTER XXIV——OF THE ROMAN GRANDEUR
CHAPTER XXV——NOT TO COUNTERFEIT BEING SICK
CHAPTER XXVI——OF THUMBS
CHAPTER XXVII——COWARDICE THE MOTHER OF CRUELTY
CHAPTER XXVIII——ALL THINGS HAVE THEIR SEASON
CHAPTER XXIX——OF VIRTUE
CHAPTER XXX——OF A MONSTROUS CHILD
CHAPTER XXXI——OF ANGER
CHAPTER XXXII——DEFENCE OF SENECA AND PLUTARCH
CHAPTER XXXIII——THE STORY OF SPURINA
CHAPTER XXXV——OF THREE GOOD WOMEN
CHAPTER XXXVI——OF THE MOST EXCELLENT MEN
BOOK THE THIRD
CHAPTER I——OF PROFIT AND HONESTY
CHAPTER II——OF REPENTANCE
CHAPTER III——OF THREE COMMERCES
CHAPTER IV——OF DIVERSION
CHAPTER V——UPON SOME VERSES OF VIRGIL
CHAPTER VI——OF COACHES
CHAPTER VII——OF THE INCONVENIENCE OF GREATNESS
CHAPTER VIII——OF THE ART OF CONFERENCE
CHAPTER IX——OF VANITY
CHAPTER X——OF MANAGING THE WILL
CHAPTER XI——OF CRIPPLES
CHAPTER XII——OF PHYSIOGNOMY
CHAPTER XIII——OF EXPERIENCE
APOLOGY:
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