The Complete Essays (230 page)
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Authors: Michel de Montaigne
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51
. Once more a judgement
secundum quid
(in this case according to the standard of the laws of Tacitus’ day). It was not Tacitus’ fault, since a knowledge of Christian truth requires prevenient grace, which by definition cannot be in any way earned or deserved.
52
. Tacitus,
Annals
, VI, vi.
53
. Montaigne apparently accepts the contention of Duns Scotus (and others) that when a man loves himself or any other creature properly he loves God even more. Luther and many others denied this (
Weimarer Ausgabe
, XL, p. 461). Montaigne’s contention is more traditionally Catholic than Humanist.
54
. Tacitus,
Annals
, XIII, xxxv; then, IV, lxxi (seen by some as a parody of Christ’s curing the blind man in Mark 8:23).
55
. Quintus Curtius, IX, i; Livy, VIII, vi.
56
. ’88:
even judgements
which are…
57
. 88: All
universal
judgements are lax and
dangerous…
1
. Allusion to the ‘Vanity of vanities’ of Ecclesiastes 1:2 and 14; 3:19; 11:8; 12:8 and the leitmotiv ‘vanity’ and ‘vain’ throughout this, the most sceptical book of the Bible.
2
. This awesome philologist was in fact Didymus, who wrote four thousand books. His nickname was ‘Brazen-bowels’, which doubtless explains his being cited here. Montaigne’s error was already in Bodin’s
Methodus
(dedicatory epistle).
3
. Cf. Erasmus,
Adagia
, IV, III, LXXII,
Taciturnior Pythagoreis
. (Pythagoras imposed five years of silence on his disciples.) Then, for Galba, Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VIII,
Thrasea
, XLVII.
4
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Comment il fault ouïr
, 54 G.
5
. Perhaps a reference to Charles IX’s law on the shortening of legal actions (13 December 1563), and on his sumptuary laws controlling superfluous clothing (17 January – 10 February 1563/4) and hotels and restaurants (20 January 1563). All were printed by Robert Estienne in Paris. Some think it is an allusion to Michel de l’Hospital.
6
. Cf. ‘The ordinance of the King [Charles IX] and of Monsieur de Losse forbidding blasphemy and playing or singing dissolute songs’ (promulgated. December 1564).
7
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, 221B. Cf. p. 905, note 28.
8
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Xenophon
, XXVI. (A man should above all worship the gods when things go well, so that he can confidently appeal to them as friends when in sore straits. Erasmus approves of Xenophon’s saying, stating that most men act to the contrary.)
9
. [B] instead of [C]: others. For me the good is a unique spur to measure and moderation…
12
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, V,
Paulus Aemilius
, XVI (explaining why he divorced a beautiful wife).
13
. Cicero,
Paradoxa
, VI, iii.
14
. Montaigne had only one child, his daughter Léonor, who could not inherit as could a son and heir. He talks here of a male heir, either thinking of the entailed property of his estates or perhaps of a son-in-law.
15
. Cornelius Nepos,
Life of Phocion
, I; then, Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Crates
, VI, lxxxviii.
16
. ’88: same,
and shaming ones
. It is…
17
. ’88: surprise.
Now Homer shows us plainly enough what advantage is given by surprise, when he portrays Ulysses weeping over the death of his dog and not weeping over the tears of his mother: the first event, slight though it was, overwhelmed him since he was unexpectedly assailed by it; he withstood the second more violent one because he was prepared for it. The reasons may be trivial, yet they disturb our lives: our life is a delicate thing, easy to wound
. Once my face…
Cf. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la tranquillité de l’ame
, 74FG. Perhaps omitted because close to the exemplum of Psammenitus in I, 2, ‘On sadnes’.
18
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XIII, 13; then Lucretius, I, 314, and Virgil,
Aeneid
, V, 720.
19
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Diogenes
, VI, liv. Listed also s.v.
Diogenes
in Erasmus’
Apophthegmata
.
20
. ’88: would
not be a contempt, it
would be silly…
21
. Virgil,
Eclogues
, II, 71–2.
22
. That is, for ourselves under our Christian names as individual persons.
26
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, III, 3 (adapted).
27
. Leviticus 19:10, which commands reapers to leave the gleanings for the poor and the stranger.
28
. ’88: of inexcusable and puerile
sloth and flabbiness
… was made…
29
. Cicero,
Paradoxa
, V, i.
30
. Cf. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la tranquillité de l’esprit
, 69 F.
31
. Source unknown. Montaigne is contrasting his
courage
(his mind, that is, or his thoughts or his faculty of thought) with the power of his feelings
(sensus)
. His meaning is perhaps parallel to Democritus’ assertion ‘that there is more sensation [or, sense] in the brute beasts – and in the wise’.
32
. ’88: so
inept and cheap
as when…
35
. A classic Stoic contention:
adiaphora
(things indifferent) become good or bad according to our attitude towards them. (Cf. Rabelais,
Tiers Livre
, TLF, VIII, 45–53.)
36
. Juvenal,
Satires
, XIII, 28–30. The Age of Iron was the cruellest known to the Ancients, marking the decline from the happy innocence of mankind during the Golden Age, through the Silver and Bronze Ages, to the Age of Iron, when men’s weapons and hearts were hard.
37
. Virgil,
Georgics
, I, 505; then,
Aeneid
, VII, 748–9.
38
. The infamous
Poneropolis
, the town of the Wicked: Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la Curiosité
, 66 D.
39
. The most famous in modern times is More’s
Utopia
, but there were several others.
40
. Pyrrha, the wife of Deucalion; after the classical Flood this couple repeopled the world by casting over their shoulders stones which turned into men and women. Cadmus sowed the dragon’s teeth, which produced a crop of soldiers who all slaughtered each other.
41
. Plutarch,
Life of Solon
, IX; then St Augustine,
City of God
, VI, iii–iv; in vi, Varro is praised as one of the wisest of men.
42
. Verses of Guy du Faur de Pibrac (†l584), cited in Louis Le Caron’s
De la tranquillité de l’esprit
, Paris, 1588, a source of several ideas in this chapter. Paul de Foix (†1584) was the oecumenical Privy Counsellor to whom Montaigne dedicated his edition of
Les Vers françois d’Estienne de La Boëtie
.
43
. ’88: such a huge
contrivance and
to shift…
44
. Cicero,
De officiis
, II, i, B.
45
. Taken from Livy, XXIII, iii.
46
. Horace,
Odes
, I, xxxv, 33–8; then, Terence,
Adelphi
, IV, vii, 43–4.
47
. Plato,
Republic
, VIII, 545E–546A (but in Plato a less generalized statement than in Montaigne).
48
. Anecdote attributed by Erasmus to Socrates
(Apophthegmata
, III,
Socrates
, XCI).
49
. Plautus, cited by Justus Lipsius,
Saturnalia
, I, i.
50
. Socrates,
Ad Nicoclem
, IX, xxvi.
51
. Lucan,
Pharsalia
, I, 82–4; then, I, 138–9.
54
. Horace,
Epodes
, XIV, 3–4.
55
. Quintus Curtius, VII, i.
56
. Cicero,
Academica
, II
(Lucullus)
, IV, 10 (adapted).
57
. Caius Scribonius Curio, a friend and correspondent of Cicero’s (cf. Cicero,
Brutus
, LX); then, Quintilian, XI, i, 32–3.
58
. ’88: ourselves as others.
I have aged by eight years since my first publication but I doubt whether I have amended myself
by one inch. The approval…
59
. That is, in an age worse than the Age of Iron. Cf. note 36.
60
. [B] instead of [C]: we allow him
his life and his house
, since, when the need arises…
61
. Montaigne, a Roman Catholic, lived in an area dominated by members of the Reformed Church, to which several members of his family adhered.
62
. Plutarch,
Life of Lycurgus
.
63
. Cicero,
De officiis
, I, ix, 28; then, Terence,
Adelphi
, III, v, 44, and Valerius Maximus, II, ii, 6.
64
. Cicero,
De amicitia
, XVII, 63.
65
. ’88: his son
or his cousin
less…
66
. ’88: more purely unindebted
towards obligations and benefits from others:
nec…
Then Virgil,
Aeneid
, XII, 519–10 (adapted).
67
. Terence,
Pharmio
, 139.
68
. ’88: husband myself and
augment myself with all my care
, so as…
69
. Cicero (
De oratore
, III, xxxii, 127), who thinks that Hippias ‘went too far’. Hippias referred not to ‘rings’ but to ‘the ring he was wearing’.
70
. Nicolas Chalcocondylas,
De la décadence de l’empire grec
, II, xii, then, Simon Goulart,
Hist. du Portugal
, XIX, vi.
71
. Aristotle,
Nicomachaean Ethics
, IV, iii, 25–6.
72
. [B]: instead of [C]: of doing without them.
I have most readily sought the opportunity to do good and to bind others to me; and it seems to me that there is no sweeter use of our resources
. But even more than…
73
. Aristotle,
Nicomachaean Ethics
, IX, vii, 6–7.
74
. Xenophon,
Cyropaedia
, VIII, iv, 8; then, Livy, XXXVII, vi (for Scipio).
