The Complete Essays (217 page)
Read The Complete Essays Online
Authors: Michel de Montaigne
Tags: #Essays, #Philosophy, #Literary Collections, #History & Surveys, #General
265
. Varro: known only from Probus’ commentary on Virgil,
Eclogue
, VI.
266
. ’88: principles
(ressorts
) for
moiens
(means).
267
. Plato,
Alcibiades
, II, 147: ‘For poetry as a whole is inclined to be enigmatic’; Ficino’s Latin rendering (p. 47) is ambiguous, giving rise to Montaigne’s rendering, also found (for example) in Cognatus’ adage,
‘Multa novit, sed male novit omnia’
(cf.
Adagia, id est proverbiorum… omnium
, Wechel, 1643,
index rerum s.v. natura)
268. Cicero,
Acad.: Lucullus
, II, xxxix, 122.
268
. Cicero,
Acad.: Lucullus
, II, xxxix, 122.
’95: disjointed poet.
All superhuman sciences bedeck themselves in the style of poetry
. When their natural… (Timon of Athens’ insult, repeated by Montaigne in II, 16, ‘On glory’; Diogenes Laertius,
Lives
, Plato, III, xxvi, 119.)
269
. Astronomy, for example, was concerned to ‘save the appearances’ – that is, to account for observed phenomena; it did not claim to be describing fact but ‘appearances’
(phenomena)
, which may or may not really be true.
270
. Plato,
Timaeus
, 72D (Ficino, p. 724).
271
. ’88: monstrous
(monstrueuse
) for abnormal (
enormale
).
272
. Plato,
Critias
, 107, CD (adapted) (Ficino, p. 107).
273
. Erasmus,
Adages: Ad pedes
(but the servant-girl did not trip him up: he fell); Cicero,
De div.
, II, xiii, 30 (a verse from the
Iphigeneia
of Ennius); Plato,
Theaetetus
, 174B (Ficino, p. 149).
274
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, xii, 16.
275
. Pliny,
Hist. nat.
, II, xxxvii; St Augustine,
City of God
, XXI, 10.
276
. Criticism of Aristotle’s doctrine of the creative force of privation was current: e.g. in Ramus and in Guy de Brués,
Dialogues
, 161. Cf. also Cicero,
Acad.: Lucullus
, II, xxxvii (118–19);
De nat. deorum
, I, X, xi.
277
. H. C. Agrippa,
De Vanitate, III
(
ad fin.
). The axiom cited above was not Pythagorean: cf. Cognatus’ adage,
‘Peritis in sua arte credendum’
.
278
. Plato,
Republic
, V. 480 A. (For what follows, cf. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Diogenes
, L: when Zeno was proving ‘by most acute arguments that there is no such thing as motion’, Diogenes got up and walked away. ‘What are you doing, Diogenes?’ asked Zeno in surprise. ‘I am confuting your arguments,’ he replied.)
279
. Lucretius, I, 112 (Lambin, p. 16). The following list of opinions combines commonplaces from Sextus Empiricus, Cicero and, especially, H. C. Agrippa,
De Vanitate
, II. But one of the most influential studies of the soul in the Renaissance was Melanchthon’s
De anima
. Some of the matter of the following pages can be found there or may derive from there.
280
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, IX, 349 and VI, 730. Both cited in Melanchthon,
De anima
(
Opera
, 1541, III, 9); Lucretius, III, 99 (Lambin, pp. 198–9).
281
. For entelechy (
actuality
or
activity
) as principle of soul, see Aristotle,
De anima
, 2, I and
Metaph.
, 8. 3; discussed, similarly, in Melanchthon,
De anima
, II ff. (cf. Tertullian,
De anima
, 32); Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xi; St Bernard,
De anima seu meditationes devotissimae
, I,
in princ;
Diogenes Laertius,
Lives
, Heraclitus, IX, vii. What follows may be influenced by H. C. Agrippa,
De Vanitate
, LII; for Renaissance scholarship, see Melanchthon,
De anima
, 17 ff. (Quid
est organum?)
.
282
. Lucretius, III, 102; 142 (Lambin, pp. 198–99, 201–204) = where stomach a breast.
283
. A basic interdict of the Law of Moses, e.g. Leviticus 7:26–27; but it is the
anima
(life) not
animus
(mind) which is ‘in the blood’: ibid., 17:11. Cf. Melanchthon,
De anima
, 16.
284
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xxvii, 67. Montaigne used Cicero as a source, but he was impatient with his wordiness and credited him with no originality as a thinker.
285
. Galen,
De placitis Hippocratis et Piatonis
, II, ii; Stoics, rejected by Seneca,
Epist.
, LVII, 7–8. In the original French, Montaigne confusingly uses
estomach
in both its Latin sense (stomach) and its Greek sense (breast).
286
. Platonists, including Origen (criticized by St Augustine,
City of God
, XI, 23).
287
. Plutarch,
Life of Theseus
, I, 1.
288
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives
, Diogenes, VI, 40.
’80: sleep. And then Plato defined man…
289
. Cicero,
De fin.
, I, v, 13–vi, 21;
De nat. deorum
, II, xxxvi, 93–4 (adapted); III, ix, 20–3. Cotta is mocking Zeno.
290
. ’88: find
many similar
examples…; (in place of [C], below): schools,
as you can see in the infinite examples in Plutarch, against the Epicureans and Stoics: and in Seneca against the Peripatetics
. We…
293
. ’88: souls,
(for I have chosen this one example as being the most convenient for witnessing to our feebleness and vanity
) Plato…(Cf. Melanchthon,
De anima
, 29 f.)
294
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives
, Plato, III, lxvii, 224
apud
Guy de Brués, p. 79 f.
295
. Claudian, cited in the
Politici
of Justus Lipsius, IV, ix; then Lucretius, III, 143 (Lambin, pp. 201–2). Montaigne misreads
momen
(impulse) as
nomen
(name, authority) despite Lambin’s explanation.
296
. Aristotelian opinions, backed by Virgil,
Georgics
, IV, 221.
297
. This doctrine (traducianism) is discussed by Melanchthon,
De anima
, along with other notions mentioned by Montaigne.
298
. First line, anon., second, Horace,
Odes
, IV, iv, 29.
299
. Lucretius, III, 741 (Lambin, 241–2). Cf. Andreas Tiraquellus,
De legibus connubialibus
, VII, 1–4. It was accepted that sensitive and vegetative souls could be transmitted in semen: the human rational soul was individually created (Melanchthon,
De anima
, 15).
300
. Lucretius, III, 671 (Lambin, p. 235: criticism of Pythagoreans, citing Aristotle). There follows criticism of the Platonic doctrine that all learning is recollection of knowledge pre-dating the imprisonment of the soul in the body (
Phaedo
, XVIII, 73E). Similar refutations are found elsewhere (e.g. in L. Joubert’s
Erreurs populaires
, 1578 (Preface), exploited above, note 66, on natural language). Christianity avoids the problem of rewards and punishments in the afterlife by making them depend on the presence or absence of imputed merits (Christ’s not Man’s).
301
. Lucretius, III, 674 (Lambin, pp. 265–7, reading
longior for longiter)
.
302
. Plato,
Republic
, X, 615. Origen and the Universalists held that, eventually, Hell would be empty and all would be saved. Montaigne may also be alluding to misconceptions of Purgatory (as a modification of Hell, rather than of Heaven).
303
. A series of sustained borrowings from Lucretius, III, 445 f.; 510 f.; 175 f.; 499–501; 492 f.; 463 f.; 800 f.; 458; 110 f. Throughout, the comments of Lambin are relevant (pp. 190–272). For a Christian answer in the dedication of Book III of Lucretius, see the Introduction, p. xxxvii.
304
. Ignorant medical deformation of
hydrophobia
.
305
. Cicero,
De divinat.
, II, lviii, 119. Montaigne takes some of these arguments up again in III, 13, ‘On experience’.
306
. The last of this series of borrowings from Sextus Empiricus; then Aristotle,
Metaphysics
, II, I, 993 b (a
bat
not an
owl
).
307
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xvi.
308
. Seneca,
Epist.
, CII, 2 (a major treatment of the theme of immortality, influencing the following argument).
311
. Nembroth (Nimrod) was King of Babel; the Tower of Babel, sometimes portrayed as pyramidal, sought to ‘reach unto heaven’; God overthrew it and confounded men’s language, ‘that they may not understand another’s speech’: Genesis 10:9–11:9; then I Corinthians 1:19; St Augustine,
City of God
, XI, 22.
312
. Points made in Lambin’s dedication of Book III of Lucretius to ‘Germano Valenti Pimpuntio’: no human arguments assure us of immortality, not even Plato’s: only Christ does. Cf. Introduction, p. 25 xxiv ff.
313
. Seneca,
Epist.
, CXVII, 6.
314
. Cicero,
Tusc. disp.
, I, xxxi; cf. Rabelais,
Quart Livre
, XXVII,
ad fin
.
315
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives
, Diogenes, VIII, 526.
’88 (in place of [C]): another.
Socrates, Plato and virtually all those who wished to believe in the immortality of souls, allowed themselves to be convinced by that discovery, as well as whole nations, our own among them
. But… (Cf. Caesar,
De bello gallico
, VI, 18.)
316
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, VI, 719 (cf. St Augustine,
City of God
, XIV, 5). Platonic teachings: cf. Plutarch,
De la face qui apparoist dedans le rond de la Lune
, 626 C–H (the ‘orchard of Dis’).
317
. St Augustine,
City of God
, XXI, 16–17; XXII, 28 (including note by Vivès).
318
. Plato,
Meno
, 82 (Ficino, p. 19).
319
. Plato,
Timaeus
, 42. E D (Ficino, p. 710).
320
. Lucretius, III, 776 f. (Lambin, pp. 243–5). The following passage draws on III, 712–40 (Lambin, pp. 237–41).
321
. Plutarch,
Life of Romulus
, XIV,
ad. fin
.
322
. In Amyot’s Plutarch,
De la face qui apparoist dedans le rond de la Lune
, 614–27, and
Du Demon ou esprit familier de Socrates
(636–49). (This is a reminder of a revolution in thought; the generation of Rabelais still sought mystical religious truths in these treatises.)
323
. Discussion of the body, and of the various theories of human reproduction form a major element in Melanchthon’s
De anima
(cf. 39 ff.). Since the human egg had yet to be discovered, all theories of generation turned on the nature of semen and of the womb. Rival schools, especially those of Hippocrates and Galen, clashed from Antiquity (cf. Rabelais,
Tiers Livre
, TLF, VIII; XXXIII; and notes). Montaigne draws on H.C. Agrippa,
De Vanitate
, LXXXII, and Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
Des opinions des philosophes
, 456 G–459 D. Cf. also Tiraquellus,
De legibus connubialibus
, XV, 10–11.
