236. Michel de Montaigne. Essayist.
[Born at the Castle of Montaigne, in Perigord, France, 1533. Died at Perigord, 1592. Aged 59.]
An original and most engaging writer. His essays consist chiefly either of personal narrative, or of disquisitions upon his individual nature. His reasoning acute and philosophical, his manner, if one may so call it, grotesque, and naïve. His descriptions of persons, events, and places full of life and exquisite drawing. A favourite author with all lovers of sterling thought, lucid style, and quaint reflection. He lived during a time of religious conflict, but walked quietly and unscathed through the fire, blessed with philosophic calm. He travelled in 1580, visited Switzerland and Venice “which he had a hunger to see,” and settled for a time in Rome. He said “he could not go out of his way, for he had no way to go.” On his return, elected Mayor of Bordeaux, though he told the electors he had “neither party-spirit, memory, diligence, nor experience.” Elected for a second time to the office, nevertheless. A man of great moral courage, and warm in his friendships.
237. Jacques Auguste de Thou. Minister of State and Historian.
[Born in Paris 1553. Died 1617. Aged 64.]
Under Henry III. of France, De Thou discharged the duties of several offices with eminent ability and credit; and in 1581, was appointed one of the commissioners, sent to quiet the disturbances in Guyenne. In 1588, he was nominated Councillor of State, and in the following years proceeded to Germany and Italy on a diplomatic mission. On the death of Henry III. he received the confidence of Henry IV., and was employed, with others, to digest the articles set forth in the celebrated Edict of Nantes in 1598. In 1591, he commenced his great history of his own times; and, in 1604, published the first eighteen books. After the death of Henry IV., he served for a time as one of the Directors of Finance in Sully’s place, but soon retired, disappointed and vexed; and closed his days in the completion of his magnificent historical labours, and in the practice of piety. De Thou was deeply read in men, and learned in human dealings; grave and severely simple. His mighty work was written in 138 books, in the purest Latin, and is one of the world’s monuments of industry, intelligence, and knowledge. He also wrote Latin verses.
[From the marble in the Louvre, by Barthélemi Prieur. The head is in white marble, and the body in porphyry to imitate his robe.]
238. Réné Descartes. Mathematician and Metaphysician.
[Born at Touraine, in France, 1596. Died at Stockholm, in Sweden, 1650. Aged 54.]
Shares with Bacon the title of Father of Modern Philosophy. All the metaphysical writers follow him, as the men of the physical sciences follow Bacon. He was only three and twenty when, whilst with his regiment on the Danube, he determined to reform philosophy. To do so, he resolved to efface from his mind all that he had learnt, and to admit nothing that could not be demonstrated by reason and experience. With him, consciousness was the sole basis, mathematics the sole method, of certainty. He substituted the philosophy of reason for that of authority. His genius for the great sciences, and his superiority over the majority of his contemporaries in scientific acquirements, were remarkable. He first applied algebra to geometry; he likewise made observations on the decline of the magnetic needle, put forward the true theory of the rainbow, and brought the science of optics within the domain of mathematics. His influence over his age was great, though his writings involved him in controversies. But he was timid as a man. He wrote a book on astronomy, but destroyed it on learning the fate of Galileo. He was the first great master of French prose. It is said of him, that he began by doubting everything, and ended by believing that he had left nothing unexplained.