MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE.

1533-1592.

(Works. Cotton's translation, revised by Hazlitt and Wight.) Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject.2

Book i. Chap. i. That Men by various Ways arrive at the same End.

All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.3 Chap. ii Of Sorrow.

It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying. Chap. ix. Of Liars.

He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.5

Chap. xviii.

That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death.

The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom.

Chap. xxii. Of Custom. Accustom him to everything, that he may not be a Sir Paris, a carpet-knight, but a sinewy, hardy, and vigorous young man. Chap. xxv. Of the Education of Children. We were halves throughout, and to that degree that methinks by outliving him I defraud him of his part. Chap. xxvii. Of Friendship.

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories."

Chap. xxx. Of Cannibals.

1 This book of Montaigne the world has indorsed by translating it into all tongues, and printing seventy-five editions of it in Europe. - EMERSON: Representative Men. Montaigne.

2 See Plutarch, page 916.

8 See Raleigh, page 25.

Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent (Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb). - -SENECA: Hippolytus, ii. 3, 607.

4 See Sidney, page 264.

Mendacem memorem esse oportere (To be a iar, memory is neces sary). QUINTILIAN: iv. 2, 91.

5 See Tickell, page 313.

7 See Bacon, page 171.

6 See Burton, page 187.

Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know. Book i. Chap. xxxi. Of Divine Ordinances.

A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself. Chap. xxxviii. Of Solitude.

Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life. Chap. xl. Of Good and Evil.

Plato says, ""T is to no purpose for a sober man to knock at the door of the Muses;" and Aristotle says "that no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of folly."1 Book ii. Chap. ii. Of Drunkenness.

For a desperate disease a desperate cure.2

Chap. iii. The Custom of the Isle of Cea.

And not to serve for a table-talk."

Ibid.

To which we may add this other Aristotelian consideration, that he who confers a benefit on any one loves him better than he is beloved by him again.1

Chap. viii. Of the Affection of Fathers.

The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us.

Chap. x. Of Books.

The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write.

Ibid.

She [virtue] requires a rough and stormy passage; she will have either outward difficulties to wrestle with,5.. or internal difficulties. Chap. xi. Of Cruelty.

There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants. Ibid.

1 See Dryden, page 267.
8 See Shakespeare, page 64.

2 See Shakespeare, page 141. 4 ARISTOTLE: Ethics, ix. 7.

5 See Milton, page 255.

Some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe.

Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.

When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me? Ibid.

"T is one and the same Nature that rolls on her course, and whoever has sufficiently considered the present state of things might certainly conclude as to both the future and the past.1

Ibid.

The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mould. . . . The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbour causes a war betwixt princes.

Ibid.

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.

Ibid.

Why may not a goose say thus: "All the parts of the universe I have an interest in: the earth serves me to walk upon, the sun to light me; the stars have their influence upon me; I have such an advantage by the winds and such by the waters; there is nothing that yon heavenly roof looks upon so favourably as me. I am the darling of Nature! Is it not man that keeps and serves me?" 2

Ibid.

Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are formed and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into form.

Ibid.

He that I am reading seems always to have the most

force.

1 See Plutarch, page 912.

2 See Pope, page 318.
3 See Burton, page 186.

Ibid.

Apollo said that every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be.1 Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond. How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputation! 2 Chap. xvi. Of Glory.

The mariner of old said to Neptune in a great tempest, "O God! thou mayest save me if thou wilt, and if thou wilt thou mayest destroy me; but whether or no, I will steer my rudder true."

One may be humble out of pride.

Ibid.

Chap. xvii. Of Presumption.

I find that the best virtue I have ture of vice.

Chap. xx.

has in it some tincThat we taste nothing pure.

Saying is one thing, doing another.

Chap. xxxi. Of Anger.

Is it not a noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre ? 4 Chap. xxxvi. Of the most Excellent Men. Nature forms us for ourselves, not for others; to be, not to seem.

Chap. xxxvii. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Brothers. There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.5

Of the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers.

The public weal requires that men should betray and lie and massacre. Book iii. Chap. i. Of Profit and Honesty.

Like rowers, who advance backward."

Ibid.

I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older.

1 XENOPHON: Mem. Socratis, i. 3, 1.

8 SENECA: Epistle 85.

See Browne, page 218.

Chap ii. Of Repentance.

2 See Bentley, page 284.

4 See Shakespeare, page 69.

6 See Burton, page 186.

Few men have been admired by their own domestics.1 Book iii. Chap. ii. Of Repentance.

It happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.2 Chap. v. Upon some Verses of Virgil.

And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one.

Ibid.

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in

me.

So.

Ibid.

'Tis so much to be a king, that he only is so by being The strange lustre that surrounds him conceals and shrouds him from us; our sight is there broken and dissipated, being stopped and filled by the prevailing light.3 Chap. vii. Of the Inconveniences of Greatness.

We are born to inquire after truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it. It is not, as Democritus said, hid in the bottom of the deeps, but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine knowledge.*

Chap. viii. Of the Art of Conversation.

I moreover affirm that our wisdom itself, and wisest consultations, for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance.5

Ibid.

What if he has borrowed the matter and spoiled the form, as it oft falls out?

6

Ibid.

The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried."

1 See Plutarch, page 926.

2 See Davies, page 176.

8 See Tennyson, page 677.

4 LACTANTIUS: Divin. Instit. iii. 28.

Chap. ix. Of Vanity.

5 Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of great design as of chance.

Maxim 57.

6 See Churchill, page 413.

7 Livy, xxiii. 3.

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