The Complete Essays (216 page)
Read The Complete Essays Online
Authors: Michel de Montaigne
Tags: #Essays, #Philosophy, #Literary Collections, #History & Surveys, #General
209
. ’88: a
vile
creature like man… our
languishing
grasp… or that
our taste was firm
enough to do so?
210
. ’88: hope for or
can do, we know the weakness and inadequacy of her forces
: that…
211
. ’88: within
mortal
, finite…
212
. I Corinthians II:9, adapted. (
The
text for Pauline ecstasy; see
Erasmus: Ecstasy and the Praise of Folly
, pp. 174–9;
Montaigne and Melancholy
, p. 131.)
213
. Ovid,
Tristia
, III, 11, 27; Lucretius, III, 756–7 (Lambin, p. 241).
214
. Porphyry in St Augustine,
City of God
, X, xxx.
215
. Lucretius, III, 846 (Lambin, pp. 247–51); III, 563–4 (Lambin, pp. 227–8); III, 860 (Lambin, pp. 251–4); III, 845 (Lambin, pp. 247–50).
216
. ’88:
our
vicious deeds… brought
us
forth… prevent
our
failure?
217
. Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
Pourquoy la justice divine diffère quelquefois ses malefices
, 259 C.
218
. Livy, XLI, 16; XLV, 33; Arrian,
Alexander
, VI, 19.
’88 (in place of [C]): flowers:
once with the pleasure of a blood-drenched vengeance – witness that widely received notion of sacrifices: and that God took pleasure in murder, and in the torture of things made, preserved and created by him, and that he can rejoice in the blood of innocent souls, not only of animals, which are powerless
, but of men…
219
. Julius Caesar,
De bello gallico
, VI, xvi; Virgil,
Aeneid
, X, 517.
220
. Herodotus, IV, 94; VII, 114; Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
De la superstition
, 124 A; Lucretius, I, 102 (Lambin, pp. 13–15). The reference to Themistitan is untraced.
221
. Plutarch,
De la superstition
, 123 G–124 A;
Les Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, 227 EF; Lucretius, I, 98; Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, III, vi, 15.
’88: to requite divine
justice
with our
torment and our suffering
; the Spartans…
222
. Much from St Augustine,
City of God
, VI, 10 (citing a lost book of Seneca’s
Against Superstition
). Also, Lucretius, I, 82 (Lambin, pp. 12–15).
223
. I Corinthians I:25, a central text for Christian Folly since Augustine, not least for Erasmus.
224
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives
, Stilpon, II, 117.
225
. For Platonizing thinkers the fool’s soul (being divine in origin) remains rational; the knave reasons incorrectly about what is good but is not irrational (cf. n. 2). With what follows, cf. Ronsard,
Remonstrance
, 119 f.
226
. Lucretius, VI, 678 (Lambin, pp. 508–10, reading
sint
not
sunt
). A lesson against homocentricity, inscribed in Montaigne’s library. Platonic-Christian arguments are marshalled against Aristotle’s denial of a creation
ex nihilo
. Allusions follow to biblical miracles: Elijah’s rapture to heaven (II Kings 2:11) and/or to Christ’s bodily Ascension; the halting of the Sun in Joshua 10:12; the Flood in Genesis 6–9 (cf. Genesis 1:9, 7:4); Psalm 104 (103):6–9; Christ’s walking on the water (Matthew 14:25); Christ’s appearing in an enclosed room (John 20:19 ff.); Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:22–7). The final miracle is the Real Presence of Christ’s risen body in Heaven and in each Eucharist. In the background is the Platonic doctrine of the great chain of being (God created all possible forms). With the
cave
Montaigne exploits the central Platonic myth: man, living as it were in a cave, mistakes shadows on the wall for the reality outside his cave which casts those shadows.
227
. ’80: the most famous
and noble
minds… movements make
more
credible. Now, if there are several worlds, as
Plato
, Epicurus… Lucretius, II, 1085 f., 1077 f., 1064 f. (Lambin pp. 180–2). Montaigne echoes the commentary (‘There is no verisimilitude in this world’s having been created alone’ etc.) and the commentary on pp. 178–79 (allusions to Democritus after Cicero,
De fin.
, and
Acad.: Lucullus
). In the
Timaeus
(31 AB; 55DE) Plato
defends
(against the atomists) the essential unity of the Universe but believes in a world-soul, as did the Christian Origen (St Augustine,
City of God
, XI, 23). Augustine (XIII, 16 and 17) did not reject Plato’s contention
(Timaeus
41D-42A) that the stars had souls and could be rendered immortal. Echoes in Montaigne of Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
Des Opinions des Philosophes
, 446A-F.
228
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives
, Democritus, IX, 45; cf. Epicurus, IX, 85.
229
. What follows derives from Pliny,
Hist. Nat.
, VI, 2; VIII, 22; Herodotus, III, 101; IV, 191. Pliny’s ‘errors’ and Herodotus’ ‘lies’ were often evoked in the Renaissance.
230
. Plutarch,
De la face qui apparoist dedans le rond de la Lune
, 623 F (producing amused laughter from the hearers).
231
. The standard definitions of Man, as a thinking, laughing or ‘political’ animal, could not apply to men without brains in their heads or mouths to laugh with or cities to live in (as political animals).
232
. A miracle is, for Christians, an event ‘against the whole order of Nature’. To recognize such an event by natural reason requires, therefore, a true knowledge of the limits of Nature.
233
. Cicero,
Acad.: Lucullus
, II, xxxi, 100, cf. xxxiii, 105–8; the verses from Euripides were inscribed in Montaigne’s library; they are cited by Sextus Empiricus,
Hypotyposes
, III, 229, but in a different form; Montaigne’s version derives from Stobaeus, Sermo 119, but there are minor variations in many editions of this text.
234
. Plato,
Theaetetus
, 180E–183E; Seneca,
Epist.
, LXXXVIII, 43–6; Plato,
Parmenides
, 138.
’88 (In place of [C]):
I do not know whether Ecclesiastical teaching judges otherwise – and I submit myself, in all things everywhere to its ordinance, but
it has always seemed to me…
235
. Matthew 26:26. Disputes over the eucharistic formula ‘This
(Hoc
) is my body’ are central to Christian controversy. Cf. H. C. Agrippa,
On the Vanity of all Learning
, III.
236
. Cicero,
Acad.: Lucullus
, xxix, 95.
237
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives
, Pyrrho, IX, 76 (for ‘rhubarb’ the text gives
medicamenta
).
238
. In 1576 (doubtless under the influence of Pyrrho), Montaigne struck a medal with a Balance, poised, bearing the device
Que sçay-ie?
239
. ’88: that
scoffer
Pliny exploited… (Pliny,
Hist. Nat.
, II, 7; the two following quotations are from Horace,
Odes
, III, 29, 43; Pliny, ibid., II, 23.)
240
. Seneca,
Epist.
, XCII, 275. The Stoics ‘subject God to destiny’: the Christians who are alleged to do so are doubtless, for Montaigne, Calvinists – cf. Cicero,
Acad.: Lucullus
, II, 29.
241
. Tertullian, apparently, while still a Catholic; he became a Montanist.
242
. Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, II, lxvi, 167; III, xxxv, 86; St Augustine,
City of God
, XI, 22; Cicero,
Acad.
, II, xxviii, 121.
243
. Epicurus’ principle of
isonomia
(Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, I, xix, 50) and the contentions of Cicero’s brother in
De divinat
. I, lvii, 129, are here countered by Romans 1:22–23.
244
. Lucan,
Pharsalia
, I, 486. (For ancient deifications and medals, cf. G. du Choul,
De la religion des anciens Romains
, 1556, p. 75, etc.; also Joachim Du Bellay,
Regrets
, TLF,
Songe
XI and illustration.) Seneca,
Epist.
, XXIV, 13; St Augustine,
City of God
, VIII, 23–4.
245
. Plutarch,
Les Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, 210 GH; Hermes Trismegistus,
Asclepius
, 37,
apud
St Augustine,
City of God
, VIII, 24; Lucan,
Pharsalia
, I, 452 (adapted).
246
. Several Stoic commonplaces and major borrowings from Cicero (
De nat. deorum
, II, vi, 16-VIII, 22) and others (cf. Pontus de Tyard,
Second Curieux in Discours philosophiques
, 1587, 310); Horace’s fable of the puffed-up frog (
Satires
, II, iii, 319); finally St Augustine,
City of God
, XII, 18.
247
. Commonplace deriving from Josephus,
Jewish Antiquities
, XVIII, 4 (but in the temple of Anubis not Serapis).
248
. Varro
apud
St Augustine,
City of God
, VI, 7; tale current since Antiquity.
249
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives
, Plato, III, ii, 185.
250
. Guillaume Postel,
Des Histoires Orientales
(
De la République des Turcs)
, 1575, 919 r.°
251
. Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, I, xxvii, 76–78.
252
. Eusebius Pamphilus,
Preparatio evangelka
, XIII, 13, perhaps via Ph. Duplessis–Mornay,
De la Verité de la religion chrestienne
, chapters. I(end), 4 (beginning).
253
. Developments inspired by Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, I, xxvii, 78: ‘Suppose animals possessed reason: would they not attribute superiority to their own kind?’ Latin quotation: ibid., 77.
254
. Horace,
Odes
, II, 12, 6; Virgil,
Aeneid
, II, 610; Herodotus, I, 172. (For the gods of grapes and garlic, cf. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine,
On the Loss of Grace and the State of Sin
, book X, chapter ix, ‘An enumeration of the maladies and wounds of the human mind’, § 6, in
Opera
, 1593, 487B.)
255
. Livy, XXVII, xxiii; Virgil,
Aeneid
, I, 16; Anon., cited Cicero,
De divinatione
, II, Ivi, 115; Ovid,
Fasti
, III, 81 and I, 294.
256
. Echoes of St Augustine,
City of God
, IV, 8; VI, 5 and 7; III, 12 etc.; quotation from Ovid,
Metam.
, I, 194 in Vivès’s commentary (ibid., Ill, 12); Plutarch,
Contre les Stoïques
, 583A (cf. Rabelais,
Quart Livre
, TLF, XXVII, p. 135); Ovid, ibid., VIII, 99.
257
. St Augustine,
City of God
, IV, xxxi and xxxvii.
258
. Phaëton was the son of Helios and Clymene. Seeking to reach the heavens he was drowned: the symbol of hubris. (The ‘forms’, or ‘Ideas’, exist in the heavenly regions; Man only knows those which God makes accessible to him: to try and discover more is to court disaster.)
259
. Xenophon,
Memorabilia
, IV, vii, 2; Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, II, xxii, 57–58; for Archimedes and the compelling power of geometry, Cicero,
Acad.: Lucullus
, II, xxxvii, 116–17 (influenced by a reading of S. Bodin,
De la démonomanie des sorciers);
Guy de Brués,
Dialogues
, p. 90.
