The Complete Essays (234 page)

35
. Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, III, iv, 9 (applied when a case is self-evident).

36
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, xviii, 107–8.

37
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XC, 34.

38
. Livy, XXX, xliv.

39
. ’88: Of course I do.
But
as…

40
. ’88: strange
and unheard of
effects… Then, Horace,
Odes
, I, xxviii, 11–12.

41
. Virgil,
Georgia
, III, 476–7.

42
. ’88: make us
taste
death
quite
differently…

43
. Diodorus Siculus, XVII, xxiii.

44
. Livy, XXII, li.

45
. Echo of Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De l’amour envers les enfans
, 100 F. (Also the general influence of
Que les bestes brutes usent de raison
, 271 A–273 G).

46
. A
tiro
(a recruit or beginner) practises
(meditat
) the difficulties he must overcome. Cf. note 56, below. Two clauses of Seneca conflated:
Epist. moral.
, XCI, 8; CVII, 4: (Here begins a major rejection of aspects of Seneca’s stoicism.)

47
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXIV, 4: Seneca used against himself.

48
. ’88: especially
all
such ills as may befall you, at
least
the more extreme ones.

49
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XIII, 12–13; 10; XXIV, 2 (conflated).

50
. Virgil,
Georgics
, I, 123.

51
. Quintilian, I, xii, 11.

52
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXX, 7.

53
. Propertius, II, xxvii, 1–2 (adapted); then Pseudo-Gallus,
Elegeia
, I, 277–8.

54
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xxx, 74. Cicero is citing Socrates in Plato’s
Phaedrus
, 67 D, but changes
melētema
, ‘practising’ dying, into
commentatio
, a ‘diligent meditation’ upon dying. Montaigne is correcting in the light of experience what he wrote in I, 20, ‘To philosophize is to learn how to die’. He now believes that most of mankind should neither ‘practise’ dying nor ‘meditate’ upon dying.

55
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, i, 15.

56
. Suetonius,
Life of Caesar
, lxxxvii. In 1588 Montaigne wrote ‘… by death itself and his long premeditation. That is why Caesar opined that the happiest and least burdensome death is the least premeditated.’ In [C] Montaigne twice replaces the notion of ‘premeditation’ by words which cannot evoke the philosophical meaning of
praemeditatio
, that is, an advance ‘practising’ of death in rapture or ecstasy. (Cf. the final pages of the last chapter, III, 13, ‘On experience’.) The quotation is from Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XCVIII, 8.

57
. ’88: endure ills,
which is greater than ours
… insensitivity and
beast-like
understanding…

58
. ’88: some more
inner
knowledge…

59
. ’88: good or evil.
You will therefore issue such orders as you like
. As a plea…
In [C] Montaigne’s Socrates stresses that he should be treated
secundum se
, ‘in keeping’ with his deeds and character.

60
. Based on Plato’s
Apology for Socrates
. Cicero resumes it, with eulogies, in
De Oratore
I, liv, 232. (Cf. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Socratica
, LXVI.) Honoured guests were lodged, wined and dined in the
Pyrtaneum
. The quotation from Homer is from the
Odyssey
, XIX, 163, cited by Socrates,
Apology
, 23 B.

61
. ’88: not
child-like
, unimaginably sublime…

62
. Cicero,
De oratore
, cited in note 60.

63
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De l’envie et de la haine
, 108 EF.

64
. ’88: exhibits Nature’s primary
concept
. While…

65
. ’88: the
task
of this world…
Then, Lucretius, II, 74; Ovid,
Fasti
, I, 330.

66
. ’88: lives.
Let us look at the beasts:
one can see…

67
. ’88: while swans
celebrate it
but even… (The swan-song, sung at death, has become proverbial. Erasmus,
Adages
, I, II, LV,
Cygnea Cantio.)

68
. Antiquity generally denied that the beasts have reason as Man has. The Roman populace believed however that elephants in the gladiatorial arena sometimes asked to die (cf. Chanet,
De l’instinct et la connaissance des animaux
, La Rochelle, 1640, p. 178).

69
. ’88: enough to
enrich
this treatise…

70
. In Plato’s dialogue bearing that name.

71
. Probably not an exaggeration. Such legal works cited legal authorities and maxims by the hundreds.

72
. [B] in place of [C] to the end of the paragraph:
I conceal my larcenies and disguise them: others
put their larcenies on parade and into their accounts: thereby acquiring a better claim in law than I do;
like those who disguise horses I stain their mane and their tail, and sometimes I poke out an eye: if their first master used them as amblers I make them trot; if used for the saddle, I use them for packs
. If I had wanted…

73
. ’88:
seventy…

74
. [B], instead of [C]: mind, it
is not credible that such dissonance should occur without some accident which ruptured the normal development
. As Socrates said…

75
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xxxiii, 80.

76
. Socrates’ famous reply to Zopyrus the physiognomist: he was indeed born with lecherous tendencies but had re-formed his soul. (Cicero,
De fato
, V, 10;
Tusc. disput.
, IV, 80; Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Socratica
, LXXX. Cf. above, III, 5, ‘On some lines of Virgil’, note 163.)

77
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Aristoteles Stagirites
, XV: ‘ “Beauty,” he said, “is more efficacious than any written testimonial.” Some attribute that [not to Aristotle but] to Diogenes. Aristotle used to call beauty “a gift”, because it approached the nature of grace. Socrates called it “a brief tyranny”, because the grace of beauty soon wilted; Plato, a “privilege of nature” because it came to few. Theophrastus called it “a silent deception”, since it persuaded without words; Theocritus an “ivory harm” since, though it was fair to view, it was the cause of many inconveniences; Carneades “a kingdom without protection”, since the beautiful obtain whatever they will, no force impeding them. [Diogenes] Laertius relates this.’ (In the
City of God
, XV, xxii, St Augustine makes beauty a gift of God, given to both good and evil persons.)

78
. Cited probably after Erasmus by Tiraquellus (
De legibus connubialibus
, II, 61), with reference to Quintilian, Athenaeus, Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, Propertius, etc., etc. That Phryne’s parting her garment to reveal her bosom was more effective than the best rhetoric became proverbial.

79
. The term
kalokagathos
in Greek combined
kalos
(beautiful) and
agathos
(good). ‘Beautiful’ is used, rather, for ‘good’ in the Greek Bible: e.g. the ‘good’ fish in Matthew 13:48 which were gathered into vessels while the bad were cast away are termed
ta kala
(the ‘beautiful’ ones); similarly the ‘good’ seed in the parable of the sower is
kalon sperma
(‘beautiful’ seed). There are many other examples, especially in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, of which Montaigne possessed a copy).

80
. Plato,
Corgias
, VII, 452.

81
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Aristotle
, V, 20. Cf. H. Estienne’s
Apophthegmata
, s.v.
Aristoteles
.

82
. This was the aim of the art or science of physiognomy, highly developed during the Renaissance.

83
. ’88: such
questions
I leave undecided…

84
. The great precept of Classical philosophy. Cf. Cicero,
Laelius
, V, 19; XII, 42.

85
. ’88: my natural complexions by
education
and the power of reason…

86
. ’88:1 have
a face
which is…

87
. Terence,
Heautontimorumenos
, I, i, 42; Pseudo-Gallus, I, 238.

88
. ’88: air and
bearing
have put…

89
. ’88: dead
and defeated, having been come across when in disorder and widely separated from each other
. Very naively…

90
. ’88: my house,
notwithstanding the vain truce in which we then were
, might be…

91
. ’88: Fortune
wiser than me
. There…

92
. ’88: masked gentlemen,
well mounted and well armed
, followed…

93
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, VI, 261.

94
. Catullus, LXVI, 65.

95
. ’88: ride over to me,
no longer with his threats but with
words
full of courtesy
, putting…

96
. ’88: find them,
the principal ones of which
he returned to me, not excluding my
purse and
my strong-box…

97
. ’88: his name.
(I would love, in my turn, to assay what expression he would show in a similar event
.) He then…

98
. ’88: other and worse
dangers
which…

99
. Not identified by Marie de Gournay or others. (The general theme is that of Tiraquellus in
De poenis legum temporandis
.)

100
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Aristoteles Stagirites
V.

101
. ’88:I am only.
Knave
of Clubs…
The gentleman in Montaigne had second thoughts about the term
varlet
(knave) even when used in a metaphor, so he replaced
varlet
by
escuyer
, squire (a knight’s attendant). Both terms were used more or less indifferently, just as we use both
Jack
and
Knave
for the playing-cards.

102
. Plutarch puts the contrasting point of view in his
Life of Lycurgus
, iv. On other occasions he condemns Charillus: cf.
De l’envie et de la haine
, 108 C;
Les dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, 215 D;
Comment on pourra discerner le flatteur d’avec l’amy
, 44 B. Erasmus (
Apophthegmata
, I,
Archidamas
, XXXVIII) also blames it, adding, ‘That outstanding man Archidamas perceived that mercy needs to be associated with justice. Otherwise what is a prince’s leniency towards offenders but cruelty toward the good?’

1
. The opening sentence of Aristotle’s
Metaphysics
.

2
. Manilius,
Astronomica
, I, 62–3.

3
. ’88: weaker and
baser
means: but truth…

4
. ’88: from the
comparison
between events…
Montaigne is contesting Aristode’s assertion that arts and sciences derive from judgements upon experiences.)

5
. ’Collating objects’: Montaigne’s term
image des choses
is technical and based on Latin usage:
imago
in this sense is the comparison of form with form by some likeness between them.

6
. Erasmus,
Adages
, I, V, X,
Non tam ovum ovo simile
(as we say, ‘As alike as two eggs’), citing Montaigne’s example of the ‘man at Delphi’ (or, rather, the
men
at
Delos
) who had this skill, from Cicero,
Academica
, II, (Lucullus) xviii, 58–9.