The Complete Essays (236 page)
Read The Complete Essays Online
Authors: Michel de Montaigne
Tags: #Essays, #Philosophy, #Literary Collections, #History & Surveys, #General
89
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Carneades
, XXXI.
90
. Quintilian, XI, iii, 40.
91
. ’88: limits. We
should
afford them right-of-passage…
92
. Paraphrased from Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, III, v, 12.
93
. ’88: Precedent is
a free and
all-embracing
pattern
. If the medicine…
94
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XCI, 15, after listing the normality of war, illness and death, and stressing that if we do not obey the laws of the world we should quit it.
95
. Ovid,
Tristia
, III, viii, 11.
96
. Plato,
Republic
, III, 407 C.
97
. Pseudo-Gallus,
Eclogues
, I, 171–4; then, a development inspired by Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la tranquillité de l’ame
, 74 A–D.
98
. Erasmus,
Adages
, I, III, XLVI,
Contra stimulum calces
, explaining the Classical and biblical maxim,
To kick against the pricks
, by Plutarch’s example of a choleric athlete named Ctesiphon, unknown except for this incident.
99
. ’88: masterly
countenances
, threatening me…
100
. Herbal laxatives and astringents.
101
. Ovid,
Heroidum Epistolae
, V, 8.
102
. Not least during the French Civil Wars of Religion, setbacks and afflictions were often seen as divinely sent punishments, proof of the Fatherly love of God correcting and purging his children with salutary chastisements. All could thus find strength and comfort in tribulation.
103
. ’88: With
the ladies
, defending…
104
. ’88: that
noble
sect…
(Certain Stoics.)
105
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXVIII, 6 (with a wider influence on Montaigne’s general context.)
108
. On legislation against excessive sleep, cf. Plato,
Laws
, VII, 807 E–808 D; on milder condemnation of excessive drinking, cf. ibid. II, 673 E–674 D.
109
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Qu’il est requis qu’un Prince soit sçavant
, 137 A.
110
. ’88: however, I
can only
go by horse…
111
. ’88: honour and
nobility
of this activity…
Then Plato,
Republic
, V, etc.
112
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, II, 317.
Then ’88: for a mind
vile
and base…
113
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XCVI, 5 (in Seneca a metaphor, not a statement about war).
114
. ’88: all my
bodily
senses…
115
. ’88: exceeded
the age at
which…
116
. Horace,
Odes
, III, ix, 19–20.
117
. Ovid,
Tristia
, III, viii, 25.
118
. Juvenal, XIII, 162. (Lack of iodine produced goitres among the Swiss.)
119
. Cited by Cicero,
De divinatione
, I, 45, xxii from a lost work of Accius.
120
. Cited together by Cicero in the same work, I, xxv, 52–3. (The work of Aristotle referred to by Cicero is lost.)
121
. The example of the Atlantes was standard (cf. Rabelais,
Tiers Livre
, TLF, XIII, 56; Coelius Richerius Rhodiginus, XXVII, 16).
122
. Cicero,
De divinatione
, II, lviii, 119.
123
. Both cited together by Diogenes Laertius in his
Life of Pyrrho
.
124
. Actually Favorinus criticized this view, which he reported (Aulus Gellius,
Attic Nights
, XV, viii).
125
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XVIII, 7. Then, Horace,
Epistles
, I, 52.
126
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, CXXIII, 3.
127
. ’88: me.)
I condemn in
these
disturbances
of ours
the cause of one of the parties, but more so
when it is flourishing and successful: it [i.e. the cause]
has
almost
reconciled
me to it when I see it wretched and overwhelmed… [Pity, or sympathy, for the cause of the Reformers changes to pity for their faction.]
128
. Condensed from Plutarch’s
Life of Agis
and
Life of Cleomenes;
then,
Life of Flaminius
and
Life of Pyrrhus
.
129
. ’88: Those who take care of me
can
at little cost…
130
. Herodotus, I, xxxii.
131
. Cicero,
De senectute
, xix, 71; then, Plato,
Timaeus
, 81E and Cicero,
De senectute
, ix, 71 (again).
132
. ’88: to
drag
her along…
133
. Montaigne is rejecting proverbial Classical wisdom, which made food and wine the precursors of love-making. Cf. Erasmus,
Adages
, II, III, XCVII,
Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus
.
134
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XIX, 10; then for Chilo, Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Banquet des sept Sages
, 150H–151C.
135
. Medical astrological almanacks (a legal monopoly of the medical profession) marked particular dates as propitious for certain foods, treatments and so on.
136
. Cotgrave’s
Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues
confirms that vulture-skin was used in garments for warmth.
137
. Erasmus,
Adages
, II, III, I,
Aut quinque bibis aut treis, aut ne quatuor
. Montaigne drinks three
démi-sétiés
. A
septier
(or
sétier
) was a variable measure, but for wine contained two Parisian
chopines
, each a little less than an English pint. Montaigne may have drunk as much as a pint and a half.
138
. ’88: now,
at the age of fifty-four
, I have…
139
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Chrysippus Solensis
, VI.
’88: sedate, never:
and for gesticulation I am rarely to be found, on horse or on foot, without a stick in my hand
. To eat ravenously…
140
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Diogenes
, final hundred, XXIII.
141
. ’88: fine
condiment
at table…
142
. Plato,
Protagoras
, 347.
143
. Aulus Gellius,
Attic Nights
, XIII, 11.
144
. ’88: care
and pleasure
of our bodies…
145
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, V, vii, 20.
146
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, ii, 54.
147
. The balance of Critolaus, the peripatetic philosopher, always gave greater weight to the goods of the soul. (Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, V, xvii, 51.)
148
. For this much reworked sentence, I have followed the punctuation of [’95] etc. The general meaning is: Being a man (that is, body-plus-soul) and being weighted towards the body, Montaigne is unable fully to enjoy pure and simple intellectual pleasures. The law of Nature which applies to our genus (
animal
) makes the senses the gateway of cognition and cognition the means by which the senses are appreciated. (The ideas are consonant with Epicureanism: cf. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, V, xxxiii, 95–8.)
149
. Cicero,
De officiis
, III, xxxi, 116;
Academica
, II (Lucullus), xlii, 131 and xxiv, 76.
150
. Probably an allusion to Aristode,
Nicomachaean Ethics
, III, xi, 7 (1119a): men insensible to pleasure are very few and such insensibility is not human.
’88: There are
in our youth those who ambitiously claim to trample them underfoot:
why do they…
151
. ’88: theirs alone,
without help from their normal pattern
. Just to see, let Mars…
152
. That is, let them live on war (Mars), wisdom (Pallas) or eloquence (Mercury) instead of sexual intercourse (Venus), corn (Ceres) and wine (Bacchus), the second three representing bodily ‘necessities’.
’88: Bacchus. Such
vaunting humours can forge themselves some contentment (for what power can our minds not have over us!) but of wisdom they have no tincture
. I hate…
153
. Cicero’s contention,
Academica
, II (Lucullus), xlv, 139.
154
. Probably an echo of St Augustine,
City of God
, VIII, iv; but while Augustine makes Plato combine Socrates’ virtues with those of Pythagoras, he does not write of his being the mean between them. Montaigne’s term for the Mean,
tempérament
, represents Aristotle’s term
sophrosyne
.
155
. ’88: pleasures which are
human and bodily
, I do not say…
156
. From Plutarch’s
Life of Brutus
.
157
. Horace,
Odes
, I, vii, 30–2.
158
. ’88: and
professorial
wine…
The quality and quantity of the drinking in the Sorbonne (the Faculty of Theology) was indeed proverbial. Cf. Sainéan,
Langue de Rabelais
, I, 368.
159
. Cf. Rabelais,
Tiers Livre
, TLF,
Prologue
, 182; Horace,
Odes
, III, xxi, 9–12.
160
. Cicero,
De finibus
, II, viii, 24 (truncated and differently applied).
161
. Cornelius Nepos,
Life of Epaminondas
.
’88: morals
there ever was in man
. And among…
162
. ’88: of Scipio
the Younger (when all is done the first man among the Romans
) none is…
163
. Erasmus,
Adages
, V, II, XX,
Conchas legere
, citing, apropos of Scipio and Laelius, Valerius Maximus, VIII, viii, and Cicero,
De oratore
, II, vi. (Montaigne introduces a confusion in [C]: he means, as he first wrote, the Younger, not the Elder, Scipio. The error remains in the posthumous editions, with the result that anecdotes about Scipio Africanus Major and Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Minor are fused into one, as are these two Scipios themselves.)
164
. Livy, XIX, xix, of Scipio Africanus Major.
165
. A composite picture of Socrates from the standard sources: especially Plato’s
Symposium
, 213A – 220D, with a borrowing from Diogenes Laertius’
Life of Socrates
.
166
. ’88: is to
hate and disdain
our being…
167
. Eudoxus maintained that pleasure is the Supreme Good, arguing that all creatures, rational and irrational, seek it and avoid pain. (Aristotle,
Nicomachaean Ethics
, X, ii, 1172 b.) Aristotle adds that Eudoxus had a reputation for exceptional temperance. (Cf. also ibid., I, xii.) His ‘companions’ are doubtless the Platonists, of whom he was an unorthodox associate.
168
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, IV, xxxi, 66.
169
. Plato,
Laws
, I, 632C–634B; 6360; 653A–C.
170
. ’88:1
taste
it and
linger over
it. We must…