The Complete Essays (237 page)

171
. ’88: I grasp it now, in its
decadence;
Nature…
Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XV, 9. (Seneca presents this saying as an ‘excellent Greek proverb’ uttered by Epicurus, warning that it applies not to the lives of obviously foolish men but to our own, with its unsatisfiable desires.)

172
. ’88: she
–will get drunk on
it but take…

173
. ’88: natural
health
, enjoying ordinately
and fully
those sweet…

174
. ’88:I
picture to myself
, from hundreds of aspects…

175
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, X, 641–2; Lucan,
Pharsalia
, II, 657.

176
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, CXIX, 5.

177
. Plutarch, (tr. Amyot),
Banquet des Sept Sages
, 156 G.

178
. ’88: plaints are
those of ingratitude
. I accept wholeheartedly and
thank her for it
, what Nature… Giver to
despise
His gift, to
debase
it or disfigure it – Echoes of James 1:17, and of Genesis 1:25; then a conflation of phrases from Cicero,
De finibus
, III, vi, 20.

179
. Montaigne is, textually, condemning Seneca here (
Epist. moral.
, XCII, 7–8). Cf. also Aristotle,
Nicomachaean Ethics
, III, x, 8–9; Cicero,
Paradoxes
, 1.

180
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Socrates
, LXXVI (among others); Plato,
Laws
, 728E; 892 AB; 896 C ff.

181
. Cicero,
De senectute
, iii, 5
De finibus
, V, xxiv, 69; III, vi, 44.
’88: with
bastard
tracks of artifice. Is it not…

182
. Cf. Erasmus,
Adages
, II, III, XLI,
Adversum necessitatem ne dii quidem resistant
, citing Simonides’ saying and, above all, Plato. Montaigne is strongly influenced by Cicero (
De finibus
, II, xi, 34; IV, x, 25 – IV, xi, 27–9). In I, ii, 7 Cicero notes that the three schools mentioned by Montaigne, the Academics (the Platonists), the Peripatetics (the Aristotelians) and the Stoics have the virtual monopoly of ethics. Current distortions of their principles therefore pervert virtually the whole of moral philosophy. (Cf. also,
De finibus
, III, vi, 20–3; ix, 25–6;
Laelius
, V, 19; etc.) The debt to Cicero is fundamental.

183
. St Augustine,
City of God
, XIV, v; stressing that even Plato devalued the body in the life of Man, who is body plus soul.

184
. ’88: merely.
farcical
commission… man’s
natural
fashioning […] it is
simple
and inborn […] seriously
and expressly…
Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXIV, 32 (adapted).

185
. Archimedes was ecstatic when he discovered his famous principle. In the next sentence, for ‘rabble’,
voirie
, Montaigne substituted
marmaille
, a pejorative term recalling to the ear both monkey (
marmot
) and stew-pot (
marmite)
.

186
. ’88: privilege.
Our endeavours are all worldly and among the worldly ones the most natural are the most right
. Aesop…

187
. From Planudes’
Life of Aesop
, often printed with the
Fables
.

188
. ’88: of
human
disciplines […] I can find nothing
so base
and so mortal… about his
deification
. Philotas… who
exceeds
the measure of a man. The noble inscription…
(‘Deification’ was used by Christian mystics for the highest rapture. Montaigne replaced it, no doubt, as potentially misleading, Alexander’s ‘deification’ not being an ecstasy but an act of flattery.) For Philotas, cf. Quintus Curtius, VI, 9.

189
. Horace,
Odes
, III, vi, 5; then the inscription greeting Pompey as he left Athens, according to Plutarch. (Cited from Amyot’s translation of his
Life of Pompey the Great
.)

190
. ’88: common measure, without
marvel
, without rapture… more tenderly
and more delicately
. Let us commend…
Horace,
Odes
, I, xxxi, 17–20. Apollo, son of Jupiter and Latona, was the god of healing and presided over the Muses.