si conversa decebit Whom patience clothes with sutes of double kind I muse if he another way will find Personamque feret non inconcinnus vtramque He not vnfitly may Both parts and persons play Loe-heer my lessons wherein he that acteth them profiteth more then he that but knoweth them whom if you see you heare and if you heare him you see him God forbid saith some bodie in Plato that to Philosophize be to learne many things and to exercise the artes Hanc amplissimam omnium artium bcne vivendi disciplinam vita magis quà m litter is persequuti sunt This discipline of living well which is the amplest of all other artes they followed rather in their lives then in their learning or writing Leo Prince of the Phliasians enquiring of Heraclides Ponticus what arte he professed he answered Sir I professe neither art nor science but I am a Philosopher Some reproved Diogenes that being an ignorant man he did neverthelesse meddle with Philosophie to whom he replied so much the more reason have I and to greater purpose doc I meddle with-it Hegesias praid him vpon a time to reade some booke vnto him You are a merry man said he As you chuse naturall and not painted right and not counterfeit figges to eate why doe you not likewise chuse not the painted and written but the true and naturall exercises He shall not so much repeat as act his lesson In his actions shall he make repetition of the same We must observe whether there be wisedome in his enterprises integritie in his demeanor modestie in his jestures justice in his actions judgement and grace in his speech courage in his sicknesse moderation in his sports temperance in his pleasures order in the government of his house and indifferencie in his taste whether it be flesh fish wine or water or whatsoever he feedeth vpon Qui disciplinam suam non ost entationem scientiae sed legem vitae putet quique obtemperet ipse sibi aecretis pareat Who thinks his learning not an ostentation of knowledge but a law of life and himselfe obayes himselfe and doth what is decreed The true mirror of our discourses is the course of our lives Xeuxidamus answered one that demaunded of him why the Lacedemonians did not draw into a booke the ordinances of prowesse that so their yong men might read them it is saith he because they would rather accustome them to deeds and actions then to bookes and writings Compare at the end of fifteene or sixteene yeares one of these collegiall Latinizers who hath imployed all that while onely in learning how to speake to such a one as I meane The world is nothing but babling and words and I never saw man that doth not rather speake more than he ought then lesse Notwithstanding halfe our age is consumed that way We are kept foure or five yeares learning to vnderstand bare words and to joine them into clauses then as long in proportioning a great bodie extended into foure or five parts and five more at least ere we can succinctly know how to mingle joine interlace them handsomly into a subtil fashion and into one coherent orbe Let-vs leave-it to those whose profession is to doe nothing else Being once on my journey toward Orleans it was my chance to meet vpon that plaine that lieth on this side Clery with two Masters of Arts traveling toward Burdeaux about fiftie paces one from another far-off behind them I descride a troupe of horsemen their Master riding formost who was the Earle of Rochefocault one of my servants enquiring of the first of those Masters of artes what Gentleman he was that followed him supposing my servant had meant his fellow-scholler for he had not yet seen the Earles traine answered pleasantly He is no gentleman Sir but a Gramarian and I am a Logitian Now we that contrariwise seek not to frame a Gramarian nor a Logitian but a compleat gentleman let vs give them leave to mispend their time we have else-where and somewhat else of more import to doe So that our Disciple be well and sufficiently stored with matter words will follow apace and if they will not follow gently he shall hale them-on perforce I heare some excuse themselves that they cannot expresse their meaning and make a semblance that their heads are so full-stuft with many goodly things but for want of eloquence they can neither vtter nor make shew of them It is a meere fopperie And will you know what in my seeming the cause is They are shadows and Chimeraes proceeding of some formelesse conceptions which they cannot distinguish or resolve within and by consequence are not able to produce them in asmuch as they vnderstand not themselves And if you but marke their earnestnesse and how they stammer labour at the point of their deliverie you would deeme that what they go withall is but a conceiving and therefore nothing neere downe-lying and that they doe but licke that imperfect and shapelesse lump of matter As for me I am of opinion and Socrates would have it so that he who hath a cleare and lively imagination in his mind may easilie produce and vtter the same although it be in Bergamask or Welsh and if he be dombe by signes and tokens Vertáque praevisam rem non invita sequentur When matter we fore-know Words voluntarie flow As one said as poetically in his prose Cùm res animum occupavere verba ambiunt When matter hath possest their minds they hunt after words and another Ipsae res verba rapiunt Things themselves will catch and carry words He knowes neither Ablative Conjunctive Substantive nor Gramar no more doth his Lackey nor any Oyster wife about the streets and yet if you have a mind to it he will intertaine you your fill and peradventure stumble as litle and as seldome against the rules of his tongue as the best Master of artes in France He hath no skill in Rhetoricke nor can he with a preface fore-stall and captivate the Gentle Readers good will nor careth he greatly to know it In good sooth all this garish painting is easilie defaced by the lustre of an in-bred and simple truth for these dainties and quaint devises serve but to ammuse the vulgare sort vnapt and incapable to taste the most solide and firme meat as Afer verie plainly declareth in Cornelius Tacitus The Ambassadours of Samos being come to Cleomenes King of Sparta prepared with a long prolixe Oration to stir him vp to war against the tyrant Policrates after he had listned a good while vnto them his answere was Touching your Exordium or beginning I have forgotten it the middle I remember not and for your conclusion I will do nothing in it A fit and to my thinking a verie good answere and the Orators were put to such a shift as they knew not what to replie And what said another the Athenians from out two of their cunning Architects were
IOANNES FLORIVS AVGVSTAE ANNAE ANGL SCOT FRANC ET HIB REGINAE PRAELECTOR LING ITALICAE CHI SI CONTENTA GODE AET 58. A.D. 1611 In virtute suâ contentus nobilis arte Italus ore Anglus pectore vterque opere Floret adhuc et adhuc florebit floreat vltra FLORIVS hâc specie floridus optat amans Gul Hole sculp Tam foelix vtinam ESSAYES WRITTEN IN French By MICHAEL Lord of Montaigne Knight of the Order of S. Michael Gentleman of the French Kings Chamber DONE INTO ENGLISH according to the last French edition by IOHN FLORIO Reader of the Jtalian tongue vnto the Soueraigne Maiestie of ANNA Queene of England Scotland France and Ireland c. And one of the Gentlemen of hir Royall Priuie chamber LONDON Printed by MELCH BRADVVOOD for EDVVARD BLOVNT and WILLIAM BARRET TO THE MOST ROYAL AND RENOVMED MAIESTIE of the High-borne Princesse ANNA of DENMARKE by the Grace of God QVEENE of England Scotland France and Ireland c. Imperiall and Incomparable Maiestie SEeing with me all of me is in your Royall possession and whatsoeuer pieces of mine haue heeretofore vnder other starres passed the publike view come now of right to be vnder the predomination of a Power that both contain's all their perfections and hath influences of a more sublime nature I could not but also take in this part wherof time had worn-out the edition which the world hath long since had of mine and lay it at your Sacred feet as a memoriall of my deuoted dutie and to shew that where I am I must be all I am and can not stand dispersed in my obseruance being wholly and therein happy Your sacred MAIESTIES most humble and loyall seruant IOHN FLORIO ALL' AVGVSTA MAESTA DI ANNA Seren. ma REGINA d' Inghilterra di Scotia di Francia d' Irlanda c. C He si può dir di VOI somma REGINA Che non sia detto delle più lodate Di Magnanimità Virtù Beltate Incomparabile Sopra-diuina Anzi che stile tanto si raffina Che non sia vinto dalla Maestate L' Altezza la Chiarezza la Bontate Alla qual ' ogni cuor di-cuor s' inchina La qual di tutti honori'l specchio mostra La qual ' il pregio Sour a tutte tiene ANNA l' anello della Gioia nostra La nostra sicurtà la nostra spene VIEN DALL ' ECCELSO LA GRANDEZZA vostra Dalla GRANDEZZA vostra'l nostro bene Il Candido TO THE READER ENough if not too much hath been sayd of this Translation If the faults found euen by my selfe in the first impression be now by the Printer corrected as he was directed the worke is much amended If not know that through mine attendance on hir Maiestie I could not intend-it and blame not Neptune for thy second shipwracke Let me conclude with this worthie mans daughter of alliance Que t'en semble donc lecteur Still resolute IOHN FLORIO To my deare brother and friend M. IOHN FLORIO one of the Gentlemen of hir Maiesties most Royall Priuie Chamber BOoks like superfluous humors bred with ease So stuffe the world as it becomes opprest With taking more than it can well digest And now are turnd to be a great disease For by this ouer charging we confound The appetite of skill they had before There be'ng no end of words nor any bound Set to conceit the Ocean without shore As if man laboured with himselfe to be As infinite in writing as intents And draw his manifold vncertaintie In any shape that passion represents That these innumerable images And figures of opinion and discourse Draw'n out in leaves may be the witnesses Of our defects much rather than our force And this proud frame of our presumption This Babel of our skill this Towre of wit Seemes only checkt with the confusion Of our mistakings that dissolueth it And well may make vs of our knowledge doubt Seeing what vncertainties wee build vpon To be as weake within booke as without Or els that truth hath other shapes then one But yet although wee labor with this store And with the presse of writings seeme opprest And have to many bookes yet want wee more Feeling great dearth and scarsenesse of the bell Which cast in choiser shapes haue bin produc'd To giue the best proportions to the minde Of our confusion and haue introduc'd The likeliest images frailtie can finde And wherein most the skill-desiring soule Takes her delight the best of all delight And where her motions evenest come to rowle About this doubtfull center of the right Which to discouer this great Potentate This Prince Montaigne if he be not more Hath more aduentur'd of his owne estate Then euer man did of himselfe before And hath made such bolde sallies out vpon Custome the mightie tyrant of the earth In whose Seraglio of subiection Wee all seeme bred-vp from our tender birth As I admire his powres and out of loue Here at his gate do stand and glad I stand So neere to him whom I do so much loue T'applaude his happie setling in our land And safe transpassage by his studious care Who both of him and vs doth merit much Having as sumptuously as he is rare Plac'd him in the best lodging of our speach And made him now as free as if borne here And as well ours as theirs who may be proud That he is theirs though he be euery where To haue the franchise of his worth allow'd It be'ing the proportion of a happie Pen Not to b'invassal'd to one Monarchie But dwell with all the better world of men Whose spirits all are of one communitie Whom neither Ocean Desarts Rockes nor Sands Can keepe from th'intertraffique of the minde But that it vents her treasure in all lands And doth a most secure commercement finde Wrap Excellencie vp neuer so much In Hierogliphicques Ciphers Caracters And let her speake neuer so strange a speach Her Genius yet finds apt discipherers And neuer was she borne to dye obscure But guided by the starres of her owne grace Makes her owne fortune and is ever sure In mans best hold to hold the strongest place And let the Critick say the worst he can He cannot say but that Montaigne yet Yeeldes most rich pieces and extracts of man Though in a troubled frame confus'dly set Which yet h 'is blest that he hath euer seene And therefore as a guest in gratefulnesse For the great good the house yeelds him within Might spare to taxe th'vnapt conuayances But this breath hurts not for both worke and frame Whilst England English speakes is of that store And that choyse stuffe as that without the same The richest librarie can be but poore And they vnblest who letters doe professe And have him not whose owne fate beates their want With more sound blowes then Alcibiades Did his Pedante that did Homer want By SAM DANIEL one of the Gentlemen extraordinarie of her Maiesties most royall priuie Chamber Concerning the honor of bookes SInce Honor
apprehension blockish my invention poore and besides I had a marvelous defect in my weake memorie it is therefore no woonder if my father could never bring me to any perfection Secondly as those that in some dangerous sicknesse moved with a kind of hope-full greedie desire of perfect health againe give eare to every Leache or Emperike and follow all counsels the good-man being exceedingly fearefull to commit any oversight in a matter he tooke so to heart suffered himselfe at last to be led away by the common opinion which like vnto the Cranes followeth ever those that go before and yeelded to custome Having those no longer about him that had given him his first directions and which they had brought out of Italie Being but six yeeres old I was sent to the Colledge of Guienne then most flourishing and reputed the best in France where it is impossible to adde any thing to the great care he had both to chuse the best and most sufficient Masters that could be found to reade vnto me as also for all other circumstances pertaining to my education wherein contrary to vsuall customes of Colledges he observed many particular rules But so it is it was ever a Colledge My Latin tongue was forthwith corrupted whereof by reason of discontinuance I afterward lost all manner of vse which new kind of institution stood me in no other stead but that at my first admittance it made me to ouer-skip some of the lower formes and to be placed in the highest For at thirteene yeares of age that I left the Colledge I had read over the whole course of Philosophie as they call it but with so small profit that I can now make no account of it The first taste or feeling I had of bookes was of the pleasure I tooke in reading the fables of Ovids Metamorphosies for being but seaven or eight yeares old I would steale and sequester my selfe from all other delights onely to reade them Forsomuch as the tongue wherein they were written was to me naturall and it was the easiest booke I knew and by reason of the matter therein contained most agreeing with my yoong age For of King Arthur of Lancelot du Lake of Amadis of Huon of Burdeaux and such idle time-consuming and wit-besotting trash of bookes wherein youth doth commonly ammuse it selfe I was not so much as acquainted with their names and to this day know not their bodies nor what they containe So exact was my discipline Wherby I became more carelesse to studie my other prescript lessons And well did it fall out for my purpose that I had to deale with a very discreet Master who out of his judgement could with such dexteritie winke at and second my vntowardlinesse and such other faults that were in me For by that meanes I read-over Virgils Aeneades Terence Plautus and other Italian Comedies allured thereunto by the pleasantnesse of their severall subjects Had he beene so foolishly-severe or so sverely froward as to crosse this course of mine I think verily I had never brought any thing from the Colledge but the hate and contempt of Bookes as doth the greatest part of our Nobilitie Such was his discretion and so warily did he behave himselfe that he saw and would not see hee would foster and encrease my longing suffering me but by stealth and by snatches to glut my selfe with those Bookes holding ever a gentle hand over me concerning other regular studies For the chiefest thing my father required at their hands vnto whose charge he had committed me was a kinde of well-conditioned mildenesse and facilitie of complexion And to say truth mine had no other fault but a certaine dull-languishing and heavie slothfulnesse The danger was not I should do-ill but that I should doe nothing No man did ever suspect I would prove a bad but an vnprofitable man foreseeing in me rather a kind of idlenesse than a voluntary craftinesse I am not so selfe-conceited but I perceive what hath followed The complaints that are daily buzzed in mine eares are these that I am idle colde and negligent in offices of friendship and dutie to my parents and kinsfolkes and touching publike offices that I am over-singular and disdainefull And those that are most iniurious cannot aske wherefore I have taken and why I have not paied but may rather demand why I doe not quit and wherefore I doe not give I would take it as a favour they should wish such effects of supererogation in me But they are vnjust and over-partiall that will goe about to exact that from me which I owe not with more rigor than they will exact from themselves that which they owe wherein if they condemne me they vtterly cancell both the gratifying of the action and the gratitude which thereby would be due to me Whereas the active well-doing should be of more consequence proceeding from my hand in regard I have no passive at all Wherefore I may so much the more freely dispose of my fortune by how much more it is mine and of my selfe that am most mine owne Notwithstanding if I were a great blazoner of mine owne actions I might peradventure barre such reproches and justly vpbraid some that they are not so much offended because I doe not enough as for that I may and it lies in my power to doe much more then I doe Yet my minde ceased not at the same time to have peculiar vnto it selfe well-setled motions true and open judgements concerning the objects which it knew which alone and without any helpe or communication it would digest And amongst other things I verily beleeue it would have proved altogether incapable and vnfit to yeeld vnto force or stoope vnto violence Shall I account or relate this qualitie of my infancie which was a kinde of boldenesse in my lookes and gentle softnesse in my voice and affabilitie in my gestures and a dexteritie in conforming my selfe to the parts I vndertooke for before the age of the Alter ab undecimo tum me vix ceperat annus Yeares had I to make even Scarse two above eleven I have vnde-rgone and represented the chiefest parts in the Latin Tragedies of Buchanan Guerenti and of Muret which in great state were acted and plaid in our colledge of Guienne wherein Andreas Goveanus our Rector principall who as in all other parts belonging to his charge was without comparison the chiefest Rector of France and my selfe without ostentation be it spoken was reputed if not a chiefe master yet a principall Actor in them It is an excercise I rather commend than disalow in yong gentlemen and have seene some of our Princes in imitation of some of former ages both commendably and honestly in their proper persons acte and play some parts in Tragedies It hath heeretofore been esteemed a lawfull exercise and a tollerable profession in men of honor namely in Greece Aristoni tragico actori rem aperit huic genus fortuna honesta erant nec ars quia
many rare things and which would very neerely approch the honour of antiquity for especially touching that part of natures gifts I know none may be compared to him But it was not long of him that ever this Treatize came to mans view and I believe he never sawe it since it first escaped his hands with certaine other notes concerning the edict of Ianuarie famous by reason of our intestine warre which haply may in other places finde their deserved praise It is all I could ever recover of his reliques whom when death seized he by his last will and testament left with so kinde remembrance heire and executor of his librarie and writings besides the little booke I since caused to be published To which his pamphlet I am particularly most bounden for so much as it was the instrumentall meane of our first acquaintance For it was showed me long time before I sawe him and gave me the first knowledge of his name addressing and thus nourishing that vnspotted friendship which we so long as it pleased God have so sincerely so entire and inviolably maintained betweene vs that truely a man shall not commonly heare of the like and amongst our moderne men no signe of any such is seene So many partes are required to the erecting of such a one that it may be counted a wonder if fortunce once in three ages contract the like There is nothing to which Nature hath more addressed vs than to societie And Aristotle saith that perfect Law-givers have had more regardfull care of friendship then of iustice And the vtmost drift of it's perfection is this For generally all those amities which are forged and nourished by voluptuousnesse or profit publike or private neede are thereby so much the lesse faire and generous and so much the lesse true amities in that they intermeddle other causes scope and fruit with friendship then it selfe alone Nor doe those foure auncient kindes of friendships Naturall sociall hospitable and venerian either particularly or conjointly beseeme the same That from children to parents may rather be termed respect Friendship is nourished by communication which by reason of the over-great disparitie cannot bee found in them and would happly offend the duties of nature for neither all the secret thoughts of parents can be communicated vnto children lest it might engender an vnbeseeming familiaritie betweene them nor the admonitions and corrections which are the chiefest offices of friendship could be exercised from children to parents There have nations beene found where by custome children killed their parents and others where parents slew their children thereby to avoide the hindrance of enter-bearing one another in after times for naturally one dependeth from the ruine of another There have Philosophers beene found disdaining this naturall conjunction witnesse Aristippus who being vrged with the affection he ought his children as proceeding from his loynes began to spit saying That also that excrement proceeded from him and that also we engendred wormes and lice And that other man whom Plutarke would have perswaded to agree with his brother answered I care not a straw the more for him though he came out of the same wombe I did Verily the name of Brother is a glorious name and ful of loving kindnesse and therefore did he and I terme one another sworne brother but this commixture dividence and sharing of goods this joyning wealth to wealth and that the riches of one shall be the povertie of another doth exceedingly distemper and distract all brotherly aliance and lovely conjunction If brothers should conduct the progresse of their advancement and thrift in one same path and course they must necessarily oftentimes hinder and crosse one another Moreover the correspondencie and relation that begetteth these true and mutually-perfect amities why shall it be found in these The father and the sonne may very well be of a farre differing complexion and so many brothers He is my sonne he is my kinsman but he may be a foole a bad or a peevish-minded man And then according as they are friendships which the law and dutie of nature doth command-vs so much the lesse of our owne voluntarie choice and libertie is there required vnto it And our genuine libertie hath no production more properly her owne then that of affection and amitie Sure I am that concerning the same I have assaied all that might be having had the best and most indulgent father that ever was even to his extreamest age and who from father to sonne was descended of a famous house and touching this rare-seene vertue of brotherly concord very exemplare ipse Notus in fratres animi paterni To his brothers knowne so kinde As to beare a fathers minde To compare the affection toward women vnto it although it iproceed from our owne free choise a man cannot nor may it be placed in this ranke Her fire I confesse it neque enim est deâ— nescta nostri Quae dulcem curis miscet amaritiem Nor is that Goddesse ignorant of me Whose bitter sweetes with my cares mixed be to be more active more fervent and more sharpe But it is a rash and wavering fire waving and diverse the fire of an ague subject to fits and stints and that hath but slender hold-fast of vs. In true friendship it is a generall vniversall heat and equally tempered a constant and setled heat all pleasure and smoothnes that hath no pricking or stinging in it which the more it is in lustfull love the more is it but a ranging and mad desire in following that which flies vs Come segue la lepre il cacciatore Al freddo al caldo alla montagna al lito Ne piu l'estima poiche presa vede E sol dietro a chi sugge affrettail piede Ev'n as the huntsman doth the hare pursue In cold in heate on mountaines on the shore But cares no more when he her tan'e espies Speeding his pace onely at that which flies As soone as it creepeth into the termes of friendship that is to say in the agreement of wils it languisheth and vanisheth away enioying doth loose it as having a corporall end and subject to sacietie On the other side friendship is enjoyed according as it is desired it is neither bred nor nourished nor encreaseth but in jovissance as being spirituall and the minde being refined by vse and custome Vnder this chiefe amitie these fading affections have sometimes found place in me lest I should speake of him who in his verses speakes but too much of it So are these two passions entred into me in knowledge one of another but in comparison never the first flying a high and keeping a proud pitch disdainfully beholding the other to passe her points farre vnder it Concerning marriage besides that it is a covenant which hath nothing free but the entrance the continuance being forced and constrained depending else-where then from our will a match ordinarily concluded to other ends A thousand strange knots are there
that the knowledge I seeke in them is there so scatteringly and loosely handled that whosoever readeth them is not tied to plod long vpon them whereof I am vncapable And so are Plutarkes little workes and Senecaes Epistles which are the best and most profitable partes of their writings It is no great matter to draw mee to them and I leave them where I list For they succeed not and depend not one of another Both jumpe and suite together in most true and profitable opinions And fortune brought them both into the world in one age Both were Tutors vnto two Roman Emperours Both were strangers and came from farre Countries both rich and mighty in the common-wealth and in credite with their masters Their instruction is the prime and creame of Philosophie and presented with a plaine vnaffected and pertinent fashion Plutarke is more vniforme and constant Seneca more waving and diverse This doth labour force and extend himselfe to arme and strengthen vertue against weaknesse feare and vitious desires the other seemeth nothing so much to feare their force or attempt and in a maner scorneth to hasten or change his pace about them and to put himselfe vpon his guarde Plutarkes opinions are Platonicall gentle and accommodable vnto civill societie Senacaes Stoicall and Epicurian further from common vse but in my conceit more proper particular and more solide It appeareth in Seneca that he somewhat inclineth and yeeldeth to the tyrannie of the Emperors which were in his daies for I verily beleeve it is with a forced judgement he condemneth the cause of those noblie-minded murtherers of Caesar Plutarke is every where free and open-hearted Seneca full-fraught with points and sallies Plutarke stuft with matters The former doth moove and enflame you more the latter content please and pay you better This doth guide you the other drive you on As for Cicero of all his works those that treat of Philosophie namely morall are they which best serve my turne and square with my intent But boldly to confesse the trueth For Since the bars of impudencie were broken downe all curbing is taken away his maner of writing seemeth verie tedious vnto me as doth all such-like stuffe For his prefaces definitions divisions and Etymologies consume the greatest part of his Works whatsoever quicke wittie and pithie conceit is in him is surcharged and confounded by those his long and far-fetcht preambles If I bestow but one houre in reading him which is much for me and let me call to minde what substance or juice I have drawne from him for the most part I find nothing but winde ostentation in him for he is not yet come to the arguments which make for his purpose and reasons that properly concerne the knot or pith I seek-after These Logicall and Aristotelian ordinances are not availfull for me who onely endevour to become more wise and sufficient and not more wittie or eloquent I would have one begin with the last point I vnderstand sufficiently what death and voluptuousnesse are let not a man busie himselfe to anatomize them At the first reading of a Booke I seeke for good and solide reasons that may instruct me how to sustaine their assaults It is nether gramaticall subtilties nor logicall quiddities nor the wittie contexture of choise words or arguments and syllogismes that will serve my turne I like those discourses that give the first charge to the strongest part of the doubt his are but flourishes and languish every where They are good for Schooles at the barre or for Orators and Preachers where we may slumber and though we wake a quarter of an houre after we may find and trace him soone enough Such a maner of speech is fit for those Iudges that a man would corrupt by hooke or crooke by right or wrong or for children and the common people vnto whom a man must tell all and see what the event will be I would not have a man go about and labour by circumlocutions to induce and win me to attention and that as our Herolds or Criers do they shall ring out their words Now heare me now listen or â—oâ—yes The Romanes in their Religion were wont to say Hoc age which in ours we say Sursum corda There are so many lost words for me I come readie prepared from my house I need no allurement nor sawce my stomacke is good enough to digest raw meat And whereas with these preparatives and flourishes or preambles they thinke to sharpen my taste or stir my stomacke they cloy and make it wallowish Shall the priviledge of times excuse me from this sacrilegious boldnesse to deeme Platoes Dialogismes to be as languishing by over-filling and stuffing his matter And to bewaile the time that a man who had so many thousands of things to vtter spends about so many so long so vaine and idle interloquutions and preparatives My ignorance shall better excuse me in that I see nothing in the beautie of his language I generally enquire after Bookes that vse sciences and not after such as institute them The two first and Plinie with others of their ranke have no Hoc age in them they will have to doe with men that have forewarned themselves or if they have it is a materiall and substantiall Hoc age and that hath his bodie apart I likewise love to read the Epistles and ad Atticum not onely because they containe a most ample instruction of the Historie and affaires of his times but much more because in them I descrie his private humours For as I have said elsewhere I am wonderfull curious to discover and know the minde the soule the genuine disposition and naturall judgement of my Authors A man ought to judge their sufficiencie and not their customes nor them by the shew of their writings Which they set forth on this worlds Theatre I have sorrowed a thousand times that ever we lost the booke that Brutus writ of Virtue Oh it is a goodly thing to learne the Theorike of such as vnderstand the practise well But forsomuch as the Sermon is one thing and the Preacher an other I love as much to see Brutus in Plutarke as in himselfe I would rather make choise to know certainly what talke he had in his Tent with some of his familiar friends the night fore-going the battell then the speach he made the morrow after to his Armie and what he did in his chamber or closet then what in the Senate or market place As for Cicero I am of the common judgement that besides learning there was no exquisite excellencie in him He was a good Citizen of an honest-gentle nature as are commonly fat and burly men for so was he But to speake truely of him full of ambitious vanitie and remisse nicenesse And I know not well how to excuse him in that he deemed his Poesie worthy to be published It is no great imperfection to make bad verses but it is an imperfection in him that he never perceived
also to others There is a family at Paris and another at Montpellier called Montaigne another in Brittany and one in Xaâ—togne surnamed dela-Montaigne The removing of one onely sillable may so confound our webbe as I shall have a share in their glory and they perhaps a part of my shame And my Ancestors have heere-to-fore beene surnamed Higham or Eyquem a surname which also belongs to a house well knowen in England As for my other name it is any bodies that shall have a minde to it So shall I happily honour a Porter in my stead And suppose I had a particular marke or badge for my selfe what can it marke when I am no more extant May it desseigne or favour inanity nunc levior cippus non imprimit essa Laudat poster it as nunc non è manibus illis Nunc non è tumulo fortunatáque favillâ Nascuntur violae Doth not the grave-stone on such bones sit light Posterity applaudes from such a spright From such a tombe from ashes blessed so Shall there nor violets in Cart-lodes grow But of this I have spoken elsewhere As for the rest in a whole battell where ten thousand are either maymed or slaine there are not peradventure fifteene that shall be much spoken off It must be some eminent greatnes or important consequence that fortune hath joyned vnto it to make a private action prevaile not of a meane shot alone but of a chieftaine For to kill a man or two or tenne for one to present himselfe vndantedly to death is indeed something to every one of vs in particular for a mans free-hold goes on it But in regarde of the world they are such ordinarie things so many are daily seene and so sundrie alike must concurre together to produce a notable effect that we can looke for no particular commendation by them casus multis hic cognitus aciam Tritus è medio fortunae ductus acervo This case is knowne of many worne with nothing Drawne from the midle heape of fortunes doting Of so many thousands of worthie-valiant men which fifteene hundred yeares since have died in France with their weapons in hand not one hundred have come to our knowledge The memorie not onely of the Generals and Leaders but also of the battels and victories lieth now low-buried in oblivion The fortunes of more then halfe the world for want of a register stirre not from their place and vanish away without continuance Had I all the vnknowne events in my possession I am perswaded I might easily supplant those that are knowne in all kindes of examples What Of the Romanes themselves and of the Grecians amongst so many writers and testimonies and so infinit rare exploites and matchles examples How are so few of them come to our notice Ad nos vix tenuis famae perlabitur aura Scarsely to vs doth passe Fames thin breath how it was It shall be much if a hundred yeares hence the civill warres which lately we have had in France be but remembred in grose The Lacedemonians as they were going to their battles were wont to sacrifice vnto the Muses to the end their deedes might be well written and worthily registred deeming it a divine favor and vnusuall grace that noble actions might finde testimonies able to give them life and memorie Thinke we that at every shot that hits vs or at every dangerous attempt we runne into to have a Clarke present to enrole it And besides it may be that a hundred Clarkes shall write them whose Commentaries shall not continue three daies and shall never come to any bodies sight We have but the thousanth part of ancient writings It is Fortune which according to hir favor gives them either shorter or longer life and what we have we may lawfully doubt-of whether it be the worse since we never saw the rest Histories are not writen vpon every small trifle It is requisite that a man have beene conqueror of an Empire or of a Kingdome a man must have obtained two and fiftie set battles and ever with a lesser number as Caesar was and did Tenne thousand good-fellowes and many great Captaines have died most valiantly and couragiously in pursute of hir whose names have continued no longer then their wives and children lived quos fama obscura recondit Whom fame obscure before Layes vp in vnknowne store Even of those whom we see to doe excellently well if they hâ—ve but once continued so three months or so many yeares there is no more speech of them then if they had never bin Whosoever shall in due measure proportion and impartially consider of what kinde of people and of what deedes the glory is kept in the memorie of bookes he shall finde there are few actions and very few persons that may justly pretend any right in them How many vertuous men have we seene to surviue their owne reputation who even in their presence have seene the honor and glorie which in their young daies they had right-justly purchased to be cleane extinguished And doe we for three yeares of this fantasticall and imaginarie life loose and foregoe our right and essentiall life and engage our selves in a perpetuall death The wiser sorte propose aright-fairer and much more just end vnto themselves to so vrgent and weightie an enterprise Rectè facti fecisse merces est Officijfructus ipsum â—ssicium est The reward of wel doing is the doing the fruit of our duty is our dutie It might peradventure be excusable in a Painter or other artificer or also in a Rethoritian or Gramarian by his labours to endevor to purchase a name But the aâ—tions of vertue are of themselves too-too-noble to seeke any other reward then by their owne worth and merit and especially to seeke it in the vanitie of mans judgement If this false-fond opinion doe notwithstanding serve and stead a common wealth to holde men in their dutie If the people be thereby stirred vp to vertue If Princes be any way touched to see the world blesse and commend the memorie of Traiâ—n and detest the remembrance of Nero If that doth moove them to see the name of that arch-villa ne heretofore so dreadfull and so much redoubted of all so boldly cursed and so freely outraged by the â—â—rst scholer that vndertakes him Let it hardly be encreased and let vs as much as in vs liâ—th still foster the same amongst our selves And Plato employing all meanes to make his Citizens vertuous doth also perswade them not to contemne the peoples good estimation And saith that through some divine inspiration it commeth to passe that even the wicked know often as well by word as by opinion how to distinguish justly the good from the bad This man together with his master are woonderfull and bolde workemen to joyne divine operations and revelations wheresoever humane force faileth And therefore did peradventure Timon deeming thereby to wrong him surname him the great forget of miracles Vt tragici
memory I have others which much further my ignorance My wit is dull and slow the least cloud dimmeth it so that for example sake I never proposed riddle vnto it were it never so easie that it was able to expound There is no subtility so vaine but confounds me In games wherein wit may beare a part as of chesse of cards of tables and others I could never conceive but the common and plainest draughts My apprehension is very sluggish and gloomy but what it once holdeth the same it keepeth fast and for the time it keepes it the same it embraceth generally strictly and deepely My sight is quicke sound perfect and farre-seeing but easily wearied if much charged or emploied By which occasion I can haue no great commerce with books but by others service which reade vnto me Plime the yoonger can instruct those that have tri'd it how much this fore slowing importeth those that give themselves to this occupation There is no spirit so wretched or so brutish wherein some particular facultie is not seene to shine and none so low buried but at one hole or other it will sally out sometimes And how it commeth to passe that a minde blinde and slumbering in all other things is in some particular effects lively cleare and excellent a man must inquire of cunning masters But those are the faire spirits which are vniversall open and ready to all if not instructed at least to be instructed Which I alleage to accuse mine For be it either through weakenesse or retchlessenesse and to be carelesse of that which lieth at our feet which we have in our hands which neerest concerneth the vse of life is a thing farre from my Dogma or Doctrine there is none so simple or so ignorant as mine in divers such common matters and of which without imputation or shame a man should neuer be ignorant whereof I must needs tell some examples I was borne and brought vp in the Countrey and amidst husbandry I have since my predecessours quit me the place and possession of the goods I enjoy both businesse and husbandry in hand I cannot yet cast account either with penne or Counters There are diuers of our French Coines I know not nor can I distinguish of one graine from another be it in the field or in the barne vnlesse it be very apparant nor do I scarcely know the difference betweene the Cabidge or Lettice in my Garden I vnderstand not the names of the most vsuall tooles about husbandry nor of the meanest principles of tillage which most children know I was never skilfull in Mechanicall arts nor in Traffike or knowledge of Merchandize nor in the diversity and nature of fruits wines or cates nor can I make a Hawke physick a Horse or teach a Dogge And since I must make full shew of my shame or ignorance it is not yet a moneth since that I was found to be ignorant whereto Leven serued to make bread withall or what it was to cunne Wine The Athenians were anciently wont to thinke him very apt for the Mathematikes that could cunningly order or make vp a faggot of brusn-wood Verily a man might draw a much contrarie conclusion from me For let me have all that may belong to a Kitchin yet shall I be ready to starve for hunger By these partes of my confession one may imagine divers others to my cost and detriment But howsoever I make my selfe knowen alwaies prouided it be as I am indeede I have my purpose And I excuse not my selfe that I dare set downe in writing so base and frivolous matters as these The basenesse of the subject forceth me therevnto Let who so list accuse my project but not my progresse So it is that without being warned of others I see very wel how little this weigheth or is worth and I perceive the fondnesse of my purpose It is sufficient that my judgement is not dismayed or distracted whereof these be the Essayes Nasutus sis vsque licet sis denique nasut Quantum noluerit ferre rogatus Atlas Et possis ipsum tu deridere Latinum Non potes in nugas dicere plura meas Ipse ego quà m dixi quid dentem dente iuvabit Rodere carne opus est si satur esse velis Ne perdas operam qui se mirantur in illos Virus habe nos haec novimus esse nihil Suppose you were long nos'd suppose such nose you weare As Ailas if you should entreate him would not beare That you in flouting old Latinus can be fine Yet can you say no more against these toyes of mine Then I have said what boote tooth with a tooth to whet You must have flesh if you to glut your selfe be set Loose not your paines gainst them who on themselves are doting Keepe you your sting we know these thing of ours are nothing I am not bound to vtter no follies so I be not deceived to knowe them And wittingly to erre is so ordinarie in me that I erre not much otherwise and seldome erre casually It is a small matter to yeeld the fond actions vnto the rashnesse of my humours since I cannot warrant my self ordinarily to yeeld them the vicious Being at Barleduc I saw for the commendation of Renate the King of Sicilies memory a picture which with his owne hands hee had made of himselfe presented vnto our King Francis the second why is it not as lawfull for every man else to pourtray himselfe with his pen as it was for him to doe it with a pensell I will not then forget this other blemish vnfit to be seene of all That is irresolution a most incommodious defect in the negotiation of worldly affaires I cannot resolve in matters admitting doubtfulnesse Ne si ne nò nel cuor misuona intiero Nor yea nor nay sounds clearely in my hart I can maintaine an opinion but not make choise of it For in humane things what side soever a man leaneth-on many apparances present themselves vnto vs which confirme vs in them and Chrysippus the Philosopher was wont to say that he would learne nothing else of his maisters Zeno and Cleanthes but their doctrines simply For proofes and reasons he would finde enough of himselfe Let me turne to what side I will I ever finde sufficient matter and likely-hoode to keepe my selfe vnto it Thus keepe I doubt and libertie to my selfe to chuse vntill occasion vrge me and then to confesse the truth as the common saying is I cast my fether to the winde and yeelde to fortunes mercie A very light inclination and a slender circumstance caries me away Dum in dubio est animus paulo momento huc atque illuc impellitur While mind is in suspence with small a doe T'ts hither thither driven fro and to The vncertaintie of my judgement is in many occurrences so equally ballanced as I would willingly compromise it to the deciding of chance and of the dice. And I note with great consideration of our
entermeddle than in a vile and base one and men are more offended at a fault or oversight in a statue of gold than in one of clay These doe as much when they set foorth things which in themselves and in their place would bee good for they employ them without discretion honouring their memory at the cost and charge of their vnderstanding and doing honour to Cicero to Galen to Vlpian and to Saint Ierome to make themselves ridiculous I willingly returne to this discourse of the fondnesse of our institution whose aime hath beene to make vs not good and wittie but wise and learned She hath attained her purpose It hath not taught vs to follow vertue and embrace wisedome but made an impression in vs of it's Etymologie and derivation Wee can decline vertue yet can we not love it If wee know not what wisedome is by effect and experience wee know it by prattling and by rote Wee are not satisfied to know the race the aliances and the pedegrees of our neighbours but we will have them to be our friends and contract both conversation and intelligence with them It hath taught vs the definitions the divisions and distinctions of vertue as of the surnames and branches of a genalogie without having other care to contract practise of familiaritie or private acquaintance betweene vs and it She hath appointed vs for our learning not bookes that have sounder and truer opinions but volumes that speake the best Greeke or Latine and amongst her choise words hath made the vainest humours of antiquitie to glide into our conceits A good institution changeth iudgement and maners as it hapned to Polemon This dissolute yong Graecian going one day by chance to heare a Lecture of Xenocrates where he not onely marked the eloquence and sufficiencie of the Reader and brought not home the knowledge of some notable thing but a more apparant and solide fruit which was the sodaine change and amendment of his former life Who ever heard such an effect of our discipline faciásne quod olim Mutatus Polemon ponas insignia morbi Fasciolus cubital focalia potus vt ille Dicitur ex collo furtim carpsisse coronas Postquam est impransi correptus voce magistri Can you doe as did Polemon reformed Cast-off your sicknes signes which you deformed Your bolsters mufflers swathes As he drink-lin'de His dronken garlands covertly declinde By speech of fasting reader disciplinde The least disdainefull condition of men me thinkes is that which through simplicitie holds the last rancke and offreth vs more regular commerce The customes and discourses of Countrie-clownish-men I finde them commonly to be more conformable and better disposed according to the true prescription of Philosophie then are those of our Philosophers Plus sapit vulgus quia tantum quantum opus est sapit The vulgar is the wiser because it is but as wise as it must needes The worthiest men I have judged by externall apparances for to judge them after my fashion they should be sifted nearer concerning warre and militarie sufficiencie have beene the Duke of Guise that died before Orleans and the whilom Marshall Strozzi For men extraordinarily sufficient and endowed with no vulgar vertue Oliver and L'Hospitall both great Chancelors of France Poesie hath likewise in mine opinion had hir vogue and credit in our age We have store of cunning and able men in that profession Aurate Beza Buchanan L'Hospitall Mont-dore Turnebus As for French-men I thinke they have attained the highest degree of perfection that can or ever shall be and in those parts wherein Ronsart and excellent Bellay have writen I thinke they are not farre short of the ancient perfection Adrianus Turnebus knew more and better what he knewe then any man in his age or of many ages past The lives of the late Duke of Alva and of our Constable Mommorancie have beene very noble and have had sundrie rare ressemblances of fortune But the worthily-faire and glorious death of the last in the full sight of Paris and of his King for their service against his nearest friends and alliance in the front of an armie victorious through his conduct of it and with an hand-stroke in that old age of his deserveth in mine opinion to be placed and registred amongst the most renoumed and famous accidents of my times As also the constant goodnes the mildnes in behaviour and conscionable facilitie of Monsieur la Noüe in such an injustice of armed factions a very schoole of treason of inhumanitie and brigandage wherein he was ever brought vp a worthie and famous man of warre and most experienced in his profession I have greatly pleased my selfe in publishing in sundrie places the good hope I have of Marie Gournay le â—ars my daughter in alliance and truely of me beloved with more then a fatherly love and as one of the best parts of my being enfeoffed in my home and solitarines There is nothing in the world I esteeme more then hir If childehoode may presage any future successe hir minde shall one day be capable of many notable things and amongst other of the perfection of this thrice-sacred amitie whereunto we reade not hir sexe could yet attaine the sinceritie and soliditie of hir demeanors are therein alreadie sufficient hir kinde affection towards me is more then superabounding and such in deede as nothing more can be wished vnto it so that the apprehension which she hath of my aproching end by reason of the fifty five yeares wherein her hap hath beene to knowe me would somewhat lesse cruelly trouble hir The judgement she made of my first Essayes being a woman of this age so yong alone where she dwelleth and the exceeding vehemencie wherewith she loved me and long time by the onely esteeme which before ever she sawe me she had by them conceived of me she desired me is an accident most worthy consideration Other vertues have had little or no currantnesse at all in this age But valour is become popular by reason of our civill warres and in this part there are mindes found amongst vs very constant even to perfection and in great number so that the choise is impossible to be made Loe heere what hitherto I have knowen of any extraordinary and not common greatnesse The eighteenth Chapter Of giving the lie YEa but will some tell me this desseigne in a man to make himselfe a subject to write of might be excused in rare and famous men and who by their reputation had bred some desire in others of their acquaintance It is true I confesse it and I know that a handy-crafts-man will scarcely looke off his worke to gaze vpon an ordinary man Whereas to see a notable great person come into a towne he will leave both worke and shop It ill beseemeth any man to make himselfe knowen onely he excepted that hath somewhat in him worthy imitation and whose life and opinions may stand as a patterne to all Caesar and Xenophon have had wherewithall
Doe not well-fitting fall Choose we out the most necessary and most beneficiall matter of humane society it will be a mariage yet is it that the Saints counsell findeth and deemeth the contrary side more honest excluding from it the most reverend vocation of men as we to our races assigne such beasts as are of least esteeme The second Chapter Of Repenting OThers fashion man I repeat him and represent a particular one but ill made and whom were I to forme a new he should be far other then he is but he is now made And though the lines of my picture change and vary yet loose they not themselves The world runnes all on wheeles All things therein moove without entermission yea the earth the rockes of Caucasus and the Pyramides of Aegypt both with the publike and their owne motion Constancy it selfe is nothing but a languishing and wauering dance I cannot settle my obiect it goeth so vnquietly and staggering with a naturall drunkennesse I take it in this plight as it is at th' instant I ammuse my selfe about it I describe not the essence but the passage not a passage from age to age or as the people reckon from seaven yeares to seaven but from day to day from minute to minute My history must be fitted to the present I may soone change not onely fortune but intention It is a counter-roule of divers and variable accidents and irresolute imaginations and sometimes contrary whether it be that my selfe am other or that I apprehend subiects by other circumstances and considerations Howsoever I may perhaps gaine say my selfe but truth as Demades said I never gaine-say Were my minde setled I would not essay but resolue my selfe It is still a Prentise and a probationer I propose a meane life and without luster T' is all one They fasten all morall Philosophy as well to a popular and priuate life as to one of richer stuffe Every man beareth the whole stampe of humane condition Authors communicate themselves vnto the world by some speciall and strange marke I the first by my generall disposition as Michael de Montaigne not as a Grammarian or a Poet or a Lawyer If the world complaine I speake too much of my selfe I complaine it thinkes no more of it selfe But is it reason that being so private in vse I should pretend to make my selfe publike in knowledge Or is it reason I should produce into the world where fashion and arte have such sway and command the raw and simple effects of nature and of a nature as yet exceeding weake To write bookes without learning is it not to make a wall without stone or such like thing Conceites of musicke are directed by arte mine by hap Yet have I this according to learning that never man handled subject he vnderstood or knew better then I doe this I have vndertaken being therein the cunningest man alive Secondly that never man waded further into his matter nor more distinctly sifted the partes and dependances of it nor arrived more exactly and fully to the end he proposed vnto himselfe To finish the same I have need of naught but faithfulnesse which is therein as sincere and pure as may be found I speake truth not my belly-full but as much as I dare and I dare the more the more I grow into yeares for it seemeth custome alloweth old age more liberty to babbell and indiscretion to talke of it selfe It cannot herein be as in trades where the Crafts-man and his worke doe often differ Being a man of so sound and honest conuersation write he so foolishly Are such learned writings come from a man of so weake a conversation who hath but an ordinary conceite and writeth excellently one may say his capacity is borrowed not of himselfe A skilfull man is not skilfull in all things But a sufficient man is sufficient euery where even vnto ignorance Heere my booke and my selfe march together and keepe one pace Else-where one may commend or condemne the worke without the worke-man heere not who toucheth one toucheth the other He who shall iudge of it without knowing him shall wrong himselfe more then me he that knowes it hath wholly satisfied mee Happie beyond my merite If I get this onely portion of publike approbation as I may cause men of vnderstanding to thinke I had beene able to make vse and benefit of learning had I beene endowed with any and deserued better helpe of memorie excuse wee heere what I often say that I seldome repent my selfe and that my conscience is contented with it selfe not of an Angels or a horses conscience but as of a mans conscience Adding euer this clause not of ceremonie but of true and essentiall submission that I speake inquiring and doubting meerely and simply referring my selfe from resolution vnto common and lawfull opinions I teach not I report Noe vice is absolutely vice which offendeth not and a sound iudgement accuseth not For the deformitie and incommoditie thereof is so palpable as peraduenture they haue reason who say it is chiefly produced by sottishnesse and brought forth by ignorance so hard is it to imagine one should know it without hating it Malice sucks vp the greatest part of her owne venome and therewith impoysoneth herselfe Vice leaueth as an vlcer in the flesh a repentance in the soule which still scratcheth and bloodieth it selfe For reason effaceth other griefes and sorrowes but engendereth those of repentance the more yrkesome because inwarde As the colde and heate of agues is more offensiue then that which comes outward I account vice but each according to their measure not onely those which reason disalowes and nature condemnes but such as mans opinion bath forged as false and erronious if lawes and custome authorize the same In like manner there is not goodnesse but gladdeth an honest disposition There is truely I wot not what kinde or congratulation of well doing which reioyceth in our selues and a generous jollitie that accompanieth a good conscience A minde couragiouslie vicious may happily furnish it selfe with security but shee cannot bee fraught with this selfe-ioyning delight and satisfaction It is noe small pleasure for one to feele himselfe preserued from the contagion of an age so infected as ours and to say to himselfe could a man enter and see euen into my soule yet should he not finde me guilty either of the affliction or ruine of any body nor culpable of enuie or reuenge nor of publike offence against the lawes nor tainted with innouation trouble or sedition nor spotted with falsifying of my worde and although the libertie of times alowed and taught it every man yet could I neuer bee induced to touch the goods or diue into the purse of any French man and haue alwayes liued vpon mine own as well in time of war as of peace nor did I euer make vse of any pooremans labour without reward These testimonies of an vnspotted conscience are very pleasing which naturall ioy is a great benefit vnto vs