Essays of Michel de Montaigne

“Non vulnus instants Tyranni Mentha cadi solida, neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae, Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus.”

Under the breast it was joined to another child, but without a head, and which had the spine of the back without motion, the rest entire; for though it had one arm shorter than the other, it had been broken by accident at their birth; they were joined breast to breast, and as if a lesser child sought to throw its arms about the neck of one something bigger.

This pleasure, for being more gay, more sinewy, more robust and more manly, is only the more seriously voluptuous, and we ought give it the name of pleasure, as that which is more favourable, gentle, and natural, and not that from which we have denominated it. The other and meaner pleasure, if it could deserve this fair name, it ought to be by way of competition, and not of privilege.

Now from this common and ordinary treachery of the men of the present day, that must fall out which we already experimentally see, either that they rally together, and separate themselves by themselves to evade us, or else form their discipline by the example we give them, play their parts of the farce as we do ours, and give themselves up to the sport, without passion, care, or love;

“Nam si, quod satis est homini, id satis esse potesset Hoc sat erat: nunc, quum hoc non est, qui credimus porro Divitias ullas animum mi explere potesse?”

Effects would more speak of fortune than of me; they manifest their own office and not mine, but uncertainly and by conjecture; patterns of some one particular virtue. I expose myself entire; ‘tis a body where, at one view, the veins, muscles, and tendons are apparent, every of them in its proper place; here the effects of a cold; there of the heart beating, very dubiously. I do not write my own acts, but myself and my essence.

and such an one there may be, who has no way offended the laws, who, nevertheless, would not deserve the character of a virtuous man, and whom philosophy would justly condemn to be whipped; so unequal and perplexed is this relation.

Now seeing I have in effect tried it, I have no doubt but I have hitherto made a right judgment; for first, being in a swoon, I laboured to rip open the buttons of my doublet with my nails, for my sword was gone; and yet I felt nothing in my imagination that hurt me; for we have many motions in us that do not proceed from our direction;

They need not tell us, “It is true, for you see and feel it to be so;” they must tell me whether I really feel what I think I do; and if I do feel it, they must then tell me why I feel it, and how, and what; let them tell me the name, original, the parts and junctures of heat and cold, the qualities of the agent and patient; or let them give up their profession, which is not to admit or approve of any thing but by the way of reason; that is their test in all sorts of essays; but, certainly, ‘tis a test full of falsity, error, weakness, and defect.

“Non recito cuiquam, nisi amicis, idque coactus; Non ubivis, coramve quibuslibet, in medio qui Scripta foro recitant, sunt multi, quique lavantes.”

I can, for my part, think of no state so insupportable and dreadful, as to have the soul vivid and afflicted, without means to declare itself; as one should say of such as are sent to execution with their tongues first cut out (were it not that in this kind of dying, the most silent seems to me the most graceful, if accompanied with a grave and constant countenance); or if those miserable prisoners, who fall into the hands of the base hangman soldiers of this age, by whom they are tormented with all sorts of inhuman usage to compel them to some excessive and impossible ransom; kept, in the meantime, in such condition and place, where they have no means of expressing or signifying their thoughts and their misery.

For to him whom fasting would make more healthful and more sprightly, and to him to whose palate fish were more acceptable than flesh, the prescription of these would have no curative effect; no more than in the other sort of physic, where drugs have no effect upon him who swallows them with appetite and pleasure: the bitterness of the potion and the abhorrence of the patient are necessary circumstances to the operation.

The subjects of a prince excessive in gifts grow excessive in asking, and regulate their demands, not by reason, but by example. We have, seriously, very often reason to blush at our own impudence: we are over-paid, according to justice, when the recompense equals our service; for do we owe nothing of natural obligation to our princes? If he bear our charges, he does too much; ‘tis enough that he contribute to them: the overplus is called benefit, which cannot be exacted: for the very name Liberality sounds of Liberty.

We are to believe that their hearts tremble with affright, that the very sound of our words offends the purity of their ears, that they hate us for talking so, and only yield to our importunity by a compulsive force. Beauty, all powerful as it is, has not wherewithal to make itself relished without the mediation of these little arts.

Notwithstanding, to speak my thought freely, I think that the custom of condemning wine, because some people will be drunk, is itself to be condemned; a man cannot abuse anything but what is good in itself; and I believe that this rule has only regard to the popular vice.

I do not think that we are so unhappy as we are vain, or have in us so much malice as folly; we are not so full of mischief as inanity; nor so miserable as we are vile and mean.

That he could neither read nor swim That looks a nice well-made shoe to you That we may live, we cease to live That which cowardice itself has chosen for its refuge The action is commendable, not the man The age we live in produces but very indifferent things The authors, with whom I converse The Babylonians carried their sick into the public square The best authors too much humble and discourage me The Bible: the wicked and ignorant grow worse by it The cause of truth ought to be the common cause The conduct of our lives is the true mirror of our doctrine The consequence of common examples The day of your birth is one day’s advance towards the grave The deadest deaths are the best The event often justifies a very foolish conduct The faintness that surprises in the exercises of Venus The gods sell us all the goods they give us The good opinion of the vulgar is injurious The honour we receive from those that fear us is not honour The ignorant return from the combat full of joy and triumph The impulse of nature, which is a rough counsellor The last informed is better persuaded than the first The mean is best The mind grows costive and thick in growing old The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness The most voluntary death is the finest The particular error first makes the public error The pedestal is no part of the statue The privilege of the mind to rescue itself from old age The reward of a thing well done is to have done it The satiety of living, inclines a man to desire to die The sick man has not to complain who has his cure in his sleeve The storm is only begot by a concurrence of angers The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear The very name Liberality sounds of Liberty The vice opposite to curiosity is negligence The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high Their disguises and figures only serve to cosen fools Their labour is not to delivery, but about conception Their pictures are not here who were cast away Their souls seek repose in agitation There are defeats more triumphant than victories There are some upon whom their rich clothes weep There can be no pleasure to me without communication There is more trouble in keeping money than in getting it There is no allurement like modesty, if it be not rude There is no long, nor short, to things that are no more There is no merchant that always gains There is no reason that has not its contrary There is no recompense becomes virtue There is none of us who would not be worse than kings There is nothing I hate so much as driving a bargain There is nothing like alluring the appetite and affections There is nothing single and rare in respect of nature These sleepy, sluggish sort of men are often the most dangerous They (good women) are not by the dozen, as every one knows They begin to teach us to live when we have almost done living They better conquer us by flying They buy a cat in a sack They can neither lend nor give anything to one another They do not see my heart, they see but my countenance They err as much who too much forbear Venus They gently name them, so they patiently endure them (diseases) They have heard, they have seen, they have done so and so They have not one more invention left wherewith to amuse us They have not the courage to suffer themselves to be corrected They have yet touched nothing of that which is mine They juggle and trifle in all their discourses at our expense They must be very hard to please, if they are not contented They must become insensible and invisible to satisfy us They neither instruct us to think well nor to do well They never loved them till dead They who would fight custom with grammar are triflers Thing at which we all aim, even in virtue is pleasure Things grow familiar to men’s minds by being often seen Things I say are better than those I write Things often appear greater to us at distance than near at hand Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect Things that engage us elsewhere and separate us from ourselves Think myself no longer worth my own care Think of physic as much good or ill as any one would have me Thinking nothing done, if anything remained to be done Thinks nothing profitable that is not painful This decay of nature which renders him useless, burdensome This plodding occupation of bookes is as painfull as any other Those immodest and debauched tricks and postures Those oppressed with sorrow sometimes surprised by a smile Those which we fear the least are, peradventure, most to be fear Those who can please and hug themselves in what they do Those within (marriage) despair of getting out Thou diest because thou art living Thou wilt not feel it long if thou feelest it too much Though I be engaged to one forme, I do not tie the world unto it Though nobody should read me, have I wasted time Threats of the day of judgment Thucydides: which was the better wrestler Thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain Tis all swine’s flesh, varied by sauces Tis an exact life that maintains itself in due order in private Tis better to lean towards doubt than assurance--Augustine Tis evil counsel that will admit no change Tis far beyond not fearing death to taste and relish it Tis for youth to subject itself to common opinions Tis impossible to deal fairly with a fool Tis in some sort a kind of dying to avoid the pain of living well Tis more laudable to obey the bad than the good Tis no matter; it may be of use to some others Tis not the cause, but their interest, that inflames them Tis not the number of men, but the number of good men Tis said of Epimenides, that he always prophesied backward Tis so I melt and steal away from myself Tis the sharpnss of our mind that gives the edge to our pains Tis then no longer correction, but revenge Tis there she talks plain French Titillation of ill-natured pleasure in seeing others suffer Title of barbarism to everything that is not familiar Titles being so dearly bought Titles of my chapters do not always comprehend the whole matter To be a slave, incessantly to be led by the nose by one’s self To be, not to seem To condemn them as impossible, is by a temerarious presumption To contemn what we do not comprehend To die of old age is a death rare, extraordinary, and singular To do well where there was danger was the proper office To forbear doing is often as generous as to do To forbid us anything is to make us have a mind to’t To fret and vex at folly, as I do, is folly itself To give a currency to his little pittance of learning To go a mile out of their way to hook in a fine word To keep me from dying is not in your power To kill men, a clear and strong light is required To know by rote, is no knowledge To make little things appear great was his profession To make their private advantage at the public expense To smell, though well, is to stink To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die To what friend dare you intrust your griefs To whom no one is ill who can be good?

who having finished the picture of a dog quite tired and out of breath, in all the other parts excellently well to his own liking, but not being able to express, as he would, the slaver and foam that should come out of its mouth, vexed and angry at his work, he took his sponge, which by cleaning his pencils had imbibed several sorts of colours, and threw it in a rage against the picture, with an intent utterly to deface it; when fortune guiding the sponge to hit just upon the mouth of the dog, it there performed what all his art was not able to do.

I never knew what regimen my life was of till it was near worn out and spent; a new figure--an unpremeditated and accidental philosopher.

I am not sorry that we should here take notice of the barbarous horror of so cruel an action, but that, seeing so clearly into their faults, we should be so blind to our own.

Timoleon made a timely expiation for his strange exploit by the tears he shed, calling to mind that it was with a fraternal hand that he had slain the tyrant; and it justly pricked his conscience that he had been necessitated to purchase the public utility at so great a price as the violation of his private morality.

The vessels that serve to discharge the belly have their own proper dilatations and compressions, without and beyond our concurrence, as well as those which are destined to purge the reins; and that which, to justify the prerogative of the will, St.

He who dives into and in his inquisition comprehends all circumstances and consequences, hinders his election: a little engine well handled is sufficient for executions, whether of less or greater weight.

If the ordinary rule of descent were to be violated, and the destinies corrected in the choice they have made of our heirs, one might more plausibly do it upon the account of some remarkable and enormous personal deformity, a permanent and incorrigible defect, and in the opinion of us French, who are great admirers of beauty, an important prejudice.

A wise man may, I think, out of respect to another, as not to disturb the company, as Rusticus did, or not to break off another affair of importance in hand, defer to read or hear any new thing that is brought him; but for his own interest or particular pleasure, especially if he be a public minister, that he will not interrupt his dinner or break his sleep is inexcusable.

The Romans used to pay the watermen their fare at their first stepping into the boat, which we never do till after landing:

In truth, sir, having been overtaken by his fate in the flower of his age, and in the full enjoyment of the most vigorous health, it had been his design to publish some day works which would have demonstrated to posterity what sort of a man he was; and, peradventure, he was indifferent enough to fame, having formed such a plan in his head, to proceed no further in it.

[“A slave--his middle girded with a black apron--stands before you, when, naked, you take a hot bath.”--Martial, vii. 35, i.]

[“That which the laws compel us to do, we scarcely do with a will.” --Terence, Adelph., iii. 3, 44.]

This example is very full, if one thing were not to be objected, namely the multitude of friends for the perfect friendship I speak of is indivisible; each one gives himself so entirely to his friend, that he has nothing left to distribute to others: on the contrary, is sorry that he is not double, treble, or quadruple, and that he has not many souls and many wills, to confer them all upon this one object.

By these common and natural springs, by these ordinary and popular fancies, without being moved or put out, he set up not only the most regular, but the most high and vigorous beliefs, actions, and manners that ever were. ‘Tis he who brought again from heaven, where she lost her time, human wisdom, to restore her to man with whom her most just and greatest business lies.

But whence it should come to pass, that a mind enriched with the knowledge of so many things should not become more quick and sprightly, and that a gross and vulgar understanding should lodge within it, without correcting and improving itself, all the discourses and judgments of the greatest minds the world ever had, I am yet to seek.

where a hundred thousand men might sit at their ease: and, the place below, where the games were played, to make it, by art, first open and cleave in chasms, representing caves that vomited out the beasts designed for the spectacle; and then, secondly, to be overflowed by a deep sea, full of sea monsters, and laden with ships of war, to represent a naval battle; and, thirdly, to make it dry and even again for the combat of the gladiators; and, for the fourth scene, to have it strown with vermilion grain and storax,--[A resinous gum.]--instead of sand, there to make a solemn feast for all that infinite number of people: the last act of one only day:

Solitude seems to me to wear the best favour in such as have already employed their most active and flourishing age in the world’s service, after the example of Thales. We have lived enough for others; let us at least live out the small remnant of life for ourselves; let us now call in our thoughts and intentions to ourselves, and to our own ease and repose. ‘Tis no light thing to make a sure retreat; it will be enough for us to do without mixing other enterprises. Since God gives us leisure to order our removal, let us make ready, truss our baggage, take leave betimes of the company, and disentangle ourselves from those violent importunities that engage us elsewhere and separate us from ourselves.

Compare the life of a man subjected to such imaginations, to that of a labourer that suffers himself to be led by his natural appetite, measuring things only by the present sense, without knowledge, and without prognostic, that feels no pain or sickness, but when he is really ill. Whereas the other has the stone in his soul, before he has it in his bladder; as if it were not time enough to suffer the evil when it shall come, he must anticipate it by fancy, and run to meet it.

If my deportment, and the frankness of my conversation or relationship, oblige my neighbours, ‘tis that that they should acquit themselves of obligation in only permitting me to live, and they may say, “We allow him the free liberty of having divine service read in his own private chapel, when it is interdicted in all churches round about, and allow him the use of his goods and his life, as one who protects our wives and cattle in time of need.” For my house has for many descents shared in the reputation of Lycurgus the Athenian, who was the general depository and guardian of the purses of his fellow-citizens.

This was it that made Pharax withhold the King of Lacedaemon, who had won a battle against the Mantineans, from going to charge a thousand Argians, who had escaped in an entire body from the defeat, but rather let them steal off at liberty that he might not encounter valour whetted and enraged by mischance. Clodomir, king of Aquitaine, after his victory pursuing Gondemar, king of Burgundy, beaten and making off as fast as he could for safety, compelled him to face about and make head, wherein his obstinacy deprived him of the fruit of his conquest, for he there lost his life.

[“The deity will perchance by a favourable turn restore us to our former position.”--Horace, Epod., xiii. 7.]

‘Tis true that I look upon his obstinate poverty, as it is set out by his best friends, as a little too scrupulous and nice; and this is the only feature, though high in itself and well worthy of admiration, that I find so rugged as not to desire to imitate, to the degree it was in him.

And therefore Philoxenus was not so much to blame, hearing one giving an ill accent to some composition of his, in spurning and breaking certain earthen vessels of his, saying, “I break what is thine, because thou corruptest what is mine.” To what end did those men who have, with a firm resolution, destroyed themselves, turn away their faces that they might not see the blow that was by themselves appointed?

[These....contained in the edition of 1588 nine-and-twenty sonnets of La Boetie, accompanied by a dedicatory epistle to Madame de Grammont. The former, which are referred to at the end of Chap. XXVIL, do not really belong to the book, and are of very slight interest at this time; the epistle is transferred to the Correspondence. The sonnets, with the letter, were presumably sent some time after Letters V. et seq. Montaigne seems to have had several copies written out to forward to friends or acquaintances.]

Most of the instructions of science to encourage us herein have in them more of show than of force, and more of ornament than of effect.

[“And that for this reason nearly all things are clothed with skin, or hair, or shells, or bark, or some such thing.” --Lucretius, iv. 936.]

He who dies in a battle, with his sword in his hand, does not then think of death; he feels or considers it not; the ardour of the fight diverts his thought another way.

All that I can imagine could give occasion to this censure is the great and shining lustre of the Roman names which we have in our minds; it does not seem likely to us that Demosthenes could rival the glory of a consul, proconsul, and proctor of that great Republic; but if a man consider the truth of the thing, and the men in themselves, which is Plutarch’s chiefest aim, and will rather balance their manners, their natures, and parts, than their fortunes, I think, contrary to Bodin, that Cicero and the elder Cato come far short of the men with whom they are compared.

This belief a little resembles that other so ancient one, of thinking to gratify the gods and nature by massacre and murder: an opinion universally once received in all religions. And still, in these later times wherein our fathers lived, Amurath at the taking of the Isthmus, immolated six hundred young Greeks to his father’s soul, in the nature of a propitiatory sacrifice for his sins.

By this example you may judge of the rest, this alone being sufficient to recommend both the prudence and the affection of so good a father, who is not to be blamed if he did not reap fruits answerable to so exquisite a culture.

[“Two of the warriors, of whom I sing, had on their backs their cuirass and on their heads their casque, and never had night or day once laid them by, whilst here they were; those arms, by long practice, were grown as light to bear as a garment” --Ariosto, Cant., MI. 30.]

“‘In vera nescis nullum fore morte alium te, Qui possit vivus tibi to lugere peremptum, Stansque jacentem.’

And besides this difference, these are not idle and empty letters, that contain nothing but a fine jingle of well-chosen words and delicate couched phrases, but rather replete and abounding with grand discourses of reason, by which a man may render himself not more eloquent, but more wise, and that instruct us not to speak, but to do well. Away with that eloquence that enchants us with itself, and not with actual things!