The Complete Essays (204 page)
Read The Complete Essays Online
Authors: Michel de Montaigne
Tags: #Essays, #Philosophy, #Literary Collections, #History & Surveys, #General
8
. Aulus Gellius,
Attic Nights
, XIII, viii.
9
. Archimedes (in Plutarch’s
Life of Marcellus
, Xylander, 307B–D).
10
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Crates Thebanus Cynicus
, XIII, and
Heraclitus Ephesus
, XV.
11
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Empedocles;
Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Milesii Thaletis
, XIX, after Cicero,
De divinatione
, I, xlix.
12
. Aristotle,
Nicomachaean Ethics
, VI, vii, 5.
13
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXXVIII, 39, where he values training in virtue well above the liberal and the useful arts.
14
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, V, xxxvi, 103 (adapted); Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, CVIII, 37.
15
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXXIII, 7 (adapted).
16
. The millionaire Calvisius Sabinus, in Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXVII, 5–6.
17
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Comment il faut ouīr
, p. 30H.
18
. Cicero,
Academica
, II, i.2. Lucius Lucullus, a tiro in military matters, was dispatched against Mithridates, read up history on the way, and became an outstanding general.
19
. Euripides (translated by Montaigne in [B] but not in [C]). From John Stobaeus, III,
De Prudentia: Sententiae monostichae
.
20
. Cicero,
De officiis
, X, III, xiv, 62; Juvenal, VIII, xiv; Cicero,
De finibus
, I, i, 3.
21
. Not Dionysius but Diogenes: Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Diogenes Cynicus
, XVI.
22
. Plato,
Meno
, XXVIII, 91.
23
. Plato,
Protagoras
, XVI, 328.
24
. Persius,
Satires
, I, lxi.
25
. Adrian Turnebus, for Montaigne, was the scholar ‘who knew everything’, even though he might not be elegant after the style of Castiglione’s famous
Book of the Courtier
. Cf. II, 12, ‘An apology for Raymond Sebond’.
26
. Juvenal,
Satires
, XIV, 35. (Here
Titan
means Prometheus, the grandson of Titan. He fashioned men from clay and gave them souls made from fire stolen from the heavens.)
27
. John Stobaeus,
Sententiae
, III,
De Prudentia: Sententiae monostichae
. Translated in the text.
28
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, CVI, 12.
29
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXXVI, 3–4.
30
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, II, iv, 12.
31
. Known from Gilles Corrozet,
Propos memorables de nobles hommes de la chrestienté
.
32
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XCV, 13.
33
. Plato,
Republic
, III, 415A.
34
. Cicero,
De natura deorum
, III, xxxi, 77.
35
. In his
Cyropaedia
. Cf. John Stobaeus,
Sermo
LXXXIV, 30 f.
36
. Plato,
Alcibiades
, I; John Stobaeus,
Sermo
LXXXIV, 10–20.
37
. Xenophon,
Cyropaedia
, I, iii, 15.
38
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, 212F.
39
. Ibid., 225A.
40
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, I,
Agesilaus
, XLIX.
41
. Plato,
Hippias Major
, 285; John Stobaeus,
De justitia
, sermo IX.
42
. Several of the above examples are given in the anonymous
Tesoro politico
and appear to have been well-known at least afterwards.
1
. ’80: how
crooked-back or lame
he may be…
2
. [A] until [C]: study of
Plato or
Aristotle… (A significant deletion).
3
.
Modernists
(often a pejorative term, as in Spiegel’s
Lexicon Juris Civilis
) was applied to Nominalists – neo-Aristotelians who refused to seek philosophical truths in revelation, restricting revealed truth to Christian theology.
4
. [A] until [C]: any
solid
field…
5
. Celio Calcagnini stressed that the young can be knowledgeable about ‘universals’ but not about ‘particulars’, which depend on experience. Cf. also Aristotle,
Nicomachaean Ethics
, VI, 8, 5–8.
6
. Those daughters of Danaus who killed their husbands and were condemned to fill a leaky jar with water in Hades.
7
. [A] until [C]: made,
where books are concerned
, for history, or poetry…
Then, Cleanthes in Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, CVIII, 10.
8
. ’80: comparisons;
for otherwise I would have given birth to monstrosities, as do
those rash authors…
9
. ’80: credit
by their theft
achieve…
10
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Chrysippus
and
Life of Epicurus
.
11
. ’80: If I
used such rich paintings as make-up for a chapter of mine that
would reveal…
12
. A
cento
was a literary poem, entirely, and often ingeniously, composed of lines from other authors and made to apply to a different subject. Lelio Capilupi’s
cento
was I work on monks, entirely composed of lines of Virgil. Justus Lipsius, an author much admired by Montaigne, who knew his
Politics
well and borrowed much from it, did not write
centos
but did at times make his works into a patchwork of borrowings from ancient writers, especially the Stoics.
13
. Cimon and Mnesiphilus Themistocles were, as young men, ‘debauched and dissolute’, then they reformed: Plutarch (tr. Amyot), Si
l’homme sage doit entremettre et mesler des affaires publiques
, 186v°.
14
. Gaston III, (
‘Phoebus’
) Comte de Foix (†1391) wrote a famous book on hunting. It was published in Paris c. 1510. François de Candale, Bishop of Aire, translated Hermes Trismegistus and Euclid in 1578–9.
15
. [A] until [C]: book-learning
and instruction
, not…
16
. For the importance of
things
not
words
, cf. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Socratica
, LXXXIII; then, Cicero,
De natura deorum
, I, v, 10.
17
. ’80: given.
They are only seeking a reputation for erudition. When they can say ‘He’s a learned man’, they think they have said it all. Their
souls…
18
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXXIII, 10.
19
. Known from Montaigne’s
Journal de Voyage
to be Dr Girolamo Borro, released from the prisons of the Inquisition on Papal authority. He wrote important books on motion and on the tides.
20
. Dante,
Inferno
, XI, 93.
21
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXXIII, 4 (adapted). Romans hated kings: here Seneca virtually means, ‘We are under no despot.’
22
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la Fortune ou vertu d’Alexandre
, 313E (cf.
Quels animaux
, 508H).
31
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la mauvaise honte
, 79B. La Boëtie’s book circulated under the title of
Contr’un
(
Against
[the rule of] One) after his death and was used as Protestant propaganda against the French King.
32
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, 214F.
33
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Du bannissement, ou de l’exil
, 125D–E.
34
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Pythagoras
VII (from Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, V, iii, 9).
37
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, ii, 40–3.
38
. Propertius, IV, i, 85–6.
39
. In Ptolomaic astronomy, the Eighth Sphere contained the fixed stars (Anacreon,
Odes
, XVII, x).
40
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Anaximenes
.
41
. Author of a fifteenth-century Greek grammar.
42
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Des oracles qui ont cessé
, 338A.
43
. Juvenal,
Satires
, IX, 1879.
44
. Mnemonics representing by their vowels: i) the fourth mood of the Second figure of syllogisms; ii) the first indirect mood of the Second figure of syllogisms. (Here used to mock dry scholastic logic.)
45
. ’80: reasons
gross, manageable
and palpable. Since Philosophy…
46
. In the myth of Hesiod, Virtue dwells on a fair plateau reached by a rugged and toilsome path. Cf. I, 20, ‘To philosophize is to learn how to die’; note 7. (Seneca denied it,
De ira
, III, xiii.)
47
. Venus, the goddess of love; Pallas, of wisdom.
48
. Heroines in Ariosto’s
Orlando furioso
.
49
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, VII, 363: Paris who, in his famous judgement between Aphrodite, Hera and Athene, chose the more dainty and artificial Aphrodite (Venus). Montaigne opts for Bradamante.
50
. This passage is toned down in [’95]. Cf. Plato,
Republic
, 415 BC; then, Persius,
Satires
, III, 23–4.
51
. According to Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XLIX, 5.
52
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la fortune ou vertu d’Alexandre
, 308GH.
53
. Persius,
Satires
, V, 64–5.
54
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Epicurus
.
55
. [A] until [C]: boy
in a college
. I do not…
56
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Carneades
.
57
. The Romans said this of the French (the Gauls’) fighting-power (Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VI,
varie mixta
, CIII).
58
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Premier livre des Propos de Table
, 359F.
