The Complete Essays (214 page)
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Authors: Michel de Montaigne
Tags: #Essays, #Philosophy, #Literary Collections, #History & Surveys, #General
59
. Commonplace deriving from Pliny, VII. Erasmus exploited it (Adage,
Dulce bellum inexpertis
); Rabelais satirized it (
Tiers Livre
, TLF, VIII).
60
. Lucretius, V. 223; cf. Lambin, 389.
61
. ’88: this world:
our feebleness at birth is found, more or less, at the birth of the other creatures
. Our skin…
65
. Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
Quels animaux
?, 512 CD.
66
. Commonplace; for Herodotus, II, 2, Phrygian is Man’s natural language. Principal sources: Aristotle,
Hist. animal.
, IV, ix; Varchi,
L’Hercolano
(citing Dante,
Purgatorio
, XXXVI, 34) and L. Joubert,
Erreurs populaires au faict de la médecine
, 1578,
ad fin.
, (Lucretius, V. 1077, cited directly, and according to Lactantius,
Div. institut.
, III). Same scepticism, Rabelais,
Tiers Livre
, XIX. If some animals can laugh, then laughter is not the ‘property’ of Man.
67
. Already cited by Montaigne in I, 36 (‘On the custom of wearing clothing’); inscribed in Montaigne’s library and attributed to ‘Eccl. IX’.
68
. Lucretius, V, 874; 921 (Lambin, pp. 430–4).
69
. ’95: similar faculties,
and from richer effects, richer faculties
. Consequently we should admit that the animals employ the same method
or some better one
and the same reasoning… (
Imagination
in Montaigne can include
thought
. Sebond, LXIII, champions a contention rejected here by Montaigne: it is not convincing to unaided human reason.)
70
. Plutarch,
Quels animaux?
, 513 G;
Comment on pourra discerner le flatteur d’avec l’ami
, 41A; Herodotus, IV, 71–2; Petronius,
Satyricon
; and Tibullus, I, ix, 21, cited by Justus Lipsius,
Saturnalia
, II, 5.
71
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives
, Diogenes. The following pages are largely based on Plutarch,
Quels animaux?
and
Que les brutes usent de la raison
, with additions from Pliny, X, 43, and Plutarch’s
Life of Sylla
, etc. Cf. n. 94, below.
72
. Juvenal,
Satires
, XIV, 74; 81.
73
. Persius,
Choliambics
, which often appear as a preface or postscript to the
Satires
.
74
. Or rather, Flavius Arrianus, tr. Vuitart,
Les faicts d’Alexandre
, 1581, XIV.
75
. Juvenal, XII, 107.
76
. Lopez de Gomara, tr. Fumée,
Hist. générale des Indes
, 1584, II, 9. Cf. G. Bouchet,
Sérées
, I, 7.
77
. ’88: places.
We live, both they and ourselves, under the same roof and breathe the same air. There is, save for more or less, a perpetual similarity between us.
I once saw…
78
. Cf. I, 31, ‘On the Cannibals’
(ad fin.
); Martial,
Epigrams
, IV, xxix, 6.
79
. ’88: own,
for in our own children it is certain that until they are nearly grown up, we can find nothing to go on but their physical form
.
80
. Lucretius, IV, 1261 f.; 1266 f. (cited with approval by Tiraquellus,
De Legibus Connubialibus
who is similarly disapproving of women’s provocatory movements: see his Law XV,
in toto
).
81
. Horace,
Satire
I, 2, 69. In the final pages of the
Essays
sex
is
considered a ‘necessity’ for the vast majority of humankind.
82
. Oppianus was translated into Latin by both Adrian Turnebus and Jean Bodin, scholars admired by Montaigne.
83
. Ovid,
Metam.
, X, 325.
84
. Juvenal,
Satires
, XV, 160.
85
. Virgil,
Georgics
, IV, 67. For the Ancients, Queen bees were Kings.
86
. Lucretius, II, 325 (Lambin, p. 127).
87
. Horace,
Epistle
I, 2, 6.
88
. Verses attributed to Augustus, in Martial,
Epigrams
, XI, 20. The patroness may be Margaret of France, the future wife of Henry of Navarre.
89
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, VII, 718 f., IV, 404; here cited with Seneca in mind (Preface to
Quaestiones Naturales
).
90
. Plutarch,
Lives
, Sertorius (but it was not Pompey); Virgil,
Georgics
, IV, 86.
91
. S. Goulard,
Histoire du Portugal
, 1581 (1587), VIII, 19, 244v°.
92
. Aulus Gellius,
Attic Nights
, V, 15, etc. This tale of ‘Androdus’ and the lion is related in Ravisius Textor’s
Officina
, which is a probable source of some of Montaigne’s animal lore throughout the ‘Apology’.
93
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, XI, 89.
94
. The long series of borrowings from Plutarch on animals ends here (cf. n. 71, above). The paragraphs which follow are indebted to Sebond, chapters 217 and 293.
97
. Lopez de Gomara, II: XX, 73; LXXXIV, 170 f.; IV: III, 276; Pliny,
Hist. Nat
. VI, xiii; Gasparo Balbi,
Viaggio dell’Indie Orientali
, 1590, 76; Pliny,
Hist. Nat
. VI, xiii.
98
. Cf. Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, I. x. 24.
99
. Seneca,
Ep. moral.
124, 22 (reading
multis for mutis
).
100
. Ovid,
Metam.
, I, 84; it was often (as by Sebond) taken very seriously (cf. J. Du Bellay,
Regrets
, TLF, Sonnet 53, notes), but it does not commend itself to unaided, or unilluminated, human reason.
101
. Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, II, liv, 133 ff. (A long praise of the Immortals’ care in shaping Man. It is indebted to Plato’s
Timaeus.
)
102
. Ennius,
apud
Cicero, ibid., I, xxxv, 97.
103
. ’88: vital,
noble organs
closest to ours is,
according to the doctors
, the pig…
104
. ’88: beauty.
And since Man did not have the wherewithal to present himself naked to the sight of the world, he was right to hide himself behind the coats of others:
wool, feathers, hide or silk,
and other borrowed commodities…
105
. Ovid,
Remedia amoris
, 429.
106
. Lucretius, IV, 1182 (Lambin, p. 359 f.).
107
. Plutarch, tr. Amyot, Des
conceptions communes contre les Stoiques
, 577 AB; cf. Erasmus,
In Praise of Folly
, XXXV and XI.
’88: to the
mask
of…
108
. Cf. p. 573.
’88: daft.
All our perfection, then, consists in being men
. We do not…
109
. Socrates: Xenophon,
Memorabilia
, I, iv. 12; Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, III, xxvii, 69.
110
. Epicureans, especially, accused Aristotle of disloyalty and of a misspent youth.
111
. Horace,
Epodes
, VIII, 17; Juvenal, XIV, 156.
112
. ’88: for:
‘Among… dignity’
, this sentence reads:
Learning is even less necessary in the service of life than glory and such other qualities
.
113
. ’88: only
obedience
can…
114
. References to the Fall, Genesis, III, and to Homer
apud
Cicero,
De fin.
, V, xviii, 49. Cf. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Contre Colotes
, 597 FG, for the remark attributed to Epicurus.
115
. ’88: he knows something. That is why
simplicity and ignorance are
so strongly advocated by our religion as
elements properly conducive to subjection
, belief and obedience. All the philosophers… (Colossians 2:8. Cf. Augustine,
City of God
, VIII, ix, a key text for Christian folly, the praise of which is soon to be taken up by Montaigne.)
116
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, i. 106; John Stobaeus,
Apophthegmata
, Sermo 21.
117
. Plutarch,
Contre les Stoïques
, 578 G.
118
. Plutarch,
Que les bestes brutes usent de raison
, 270 F.
119
. Cicero:
Tusc. disput.
, V, xxxvi.
120
. Lucretius, V, 8; Montaigne discusses his madness in II, 2, ‘On drunkenness’: ‘That great poet Lucretius vainly philosophizes and braces himself: there he was, driven out of his senses by a love potion.’
121
. Cicero,
Acad.: Lucullus
, II, xxiii, 73;
De finibus
, II, xiii, 40: ‘As Aristotle says: Man is born for thought and action: he is, as it were, a mortal god.’
122
. Plutarch,
Contre les Stoïques
, 583 E; cited with Seneca in La Primaudaye,
Académie françoyse
, 1581, p. 5; Cicero,
De nat. deorum
, III, xxxvi, 87; Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LIII, 11–12.
123
. ’88: footman.
It is all wind and words
. But supposing…
124
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, II, xiii;
De fin.
, V, xxxi, 94.
125
. ’88: natural talent.
Knowledge sharpens our feelings for ills rather than lightening them
. What…
126
. S. Goulard,
Hist. du Portugal
, II, xv, 46v°.
127
. Aristotle,
Problems
, 30–I. (For Tasso’s madness, see
Montaigne and Melancholy
, p. 371ff.)
128
. Livy, XXX, xxi; La Boëtie (ed. Bonnefon, 1892, p. 234); Ennius,
apud
Cicero,
De fin.
, II, xiii, 41.
129
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, III, vi, 12; III, xv, 33;
De fin.
, II, xxxii, 105 (citing, in translation, Euripides’
Andromeda
); I. xvii, 57; II, xxxii, 104 – and contexts. The Italian verse is otherwise unknown.
130
. Epicurus (in Cicero,
De fin.
, II, iii, 7 and in Lucretius, III, 1043–4); Seneca (the dramatist)
Oedipus
, III, 17.
131
. Horace,
Epist
. I, v, 14.
132
. ’88:
vain
fantasies. (What follows is virtually all from Erasmus’ adage,
In nihil sapiendo jucundissima vita
(including references to Horace,
Epist.
, II, ii, 138; Sophocles,
Ajax
, 554; Ecclesiastes I:18). Also, Erasmus,
In Praise of Folly
, XXXVII.)
133
. ’88 onwards:
All
Philosophy
agrees…
(The remedies of Philosophy are not of course those of revealed religion (which supersedes them when there is a clash). But Christianity welcomes Philosophy. For the usual view, see Melanchthon,
On the First Book of the Ethics of Aristotle
, ‘On the distinction between Philosophy and the Christian Religion’,
Opera
, 1541, IV, 127.)