Translated by Charles Cotton · 1877
One of the sources behind Michel de Montaigne.
Chapter I
THAT MEN BY VARIOUS WAYS ARRIVE AT THE SAME END. The most usual way of appeasing the indignation of such as we have any way offended, when we see them in posse…
4 passages
Chapter Ii
OF SORROW No man living is more free from this passion than I, who yet neither like it in myself nor admire it in others, and yet generally the world, as a set…
6 passages
Chapter Iii
THAT OUR AFFECTIONS CARRY THEMSELVES BEYOND US Such as accuse mankind of the folly of gaping after future things, and advise us to make our benefit of those wh…
10 passages
Chapter Iv
THAT THE SOUL EXPENDS ITS PASSIONS UPON FALSE OBJECTS, WHERE THE TRUE ARE WANTING A gentleman of my country, marvellously tormented with the gout, being import…
3 passages
Chapter V
WHETHER THE GOVERNOR OF A PLACE BESIEGED OUGHT HIMSELF TO GO OUT TO PARLEY Quintus Marcius, the Roman legate in the war against Perseus, King of Macedon, to ga…
5 passages
Chapter Vi
THAT THE HOUR OF PARLEY DANGEROUS I saw, notwithstanding, lately at Mussidan, a place not far from my house, that those who were driven out thence by our army,…
4 passages
Chapter Vii
THAT THE INTENTION IS JUDGE OF OUR ACTIONS ‘Tis a saying, “That death discharges us of all our obligations.” I know some who have taken it in another sense. …
2 passages
Chapter Viii
OF IDLENESS As we see some grounds that have long lain idle and untilled, when grown rich and fertile by rest, to abound with and spend their virtue in the pro…
2 passages
Chapter Ix
OF LIARS There is not a man living whom it would so little become to speak from memory as myself, for I have scarcely any at all, and do not think that the wor…
6 passages
Chapter X
OF QUICK OR SLOW SPEECH “Onc ne furent a touts toutes graces donnees.” [“All graces were never yet given to any one man.”--A verse in one of La Brebis’ Sonnet…
2 passages
Chapter Xi
OF PROGNOSTICATIONS For what concerns oracles, it is certain that a good while before the coming of Jesus Christ they had begun to lose their credit; for we se…
8 passages
Chapter Xii
OF CONSTANCY The law of resolution and constancy does not imply that we ought not, as much as in us lies, to decline and secure ourselves from the mischiefs an…
5 passages
Chapter Xiii
THE CEREMONY OF THE INTERVIEW OF PRINCES There is no subject so frivolous that does not merit a place in this rhapsody. According to our common rule of civili…
3 passages
Chapter Xiv
THAT MEN ARE JUSTLY PUNISHED FOR BEING OBSTINATE IN THE DEFENCE OF A FORT THAT IS NOT IN REASON TO BE DEFENDED Valour has its bounds as well as other virtues, …
2 passages
Chapter Xv
OF THE PUNISHMENT OF COWARDICE I once heard of a prince, and a great captain, having a narration given him as he sat at table of the proceeding against Monsieu…
3 passages
Chapter Xvi
A PROCEEDING OF SOME AMBASSADORS I observe in my travels this custom, ever to learn something from the information of those with whom I confer (which is the be…
5 passages
Chapter Xvii
OF FEAR “Obstupui, steteruntque comae et vox faucibus haesit.” [“I was amazed, my hair stood on end, and my voice stuck in my throat.” Virgil, AEneid, ii. 7…
4 passages
Chapter Xviii
THAT MEN ARE NOT TO JUDGE OF OUR HAPPINESS TILL AFTER DEATH. [Charron has borrowed with unusual liberality from this and the succeeding chapter. See Nodier, Q…
4 passages
Chapter Xix
THAT TO STUDY PHILOSOPY IS TO LEARN TO DIE Cicero says--[Tusc., i. 31.]--“that to study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die.” The reason o…
28 passages
Chapter Xx
OF THE FORCE OF IMAGINATION “Fortis imaginatio generat casum,” say the schoolmen. [“A strong imagination begets the event itself.”--Axiom. Scholast.] I am on…
12 passages
Chapter Xxi
THAT THE PROFIT OF ONE MAN IS THE DAMAGE OF ANOTHER Demades the Athenian--[Seneca, De Beneficiis, vi. 38, whence nearly the whole of this chapter is taken.]--c…
2 passages
Chapter Xxii
OF CUSTOM, AND THAT WE SHOULD NOT EASILY CHANGE A LAW RECEIVED He seems to me to have had a right and true apprehension of the power of custom, who first inven…
23 passages
Chapter Xxiii
VARIOUS EVENTS FROM THE SAME COUNSEL Jacques Amiot, grand almoner of France, one day related to me this story, much to the honour of a prince of ours (and ours…
11 passages
Chapter Xxiv
OF PEDANTRY I was often, when a boy, wonderfully concerned to see, in the Italian farces, a pedant always brought in for the fool of the play, and that the tit…
20 passages
Chapter Xxv
OF THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN TO MADAME DIANE DE FOIX, Comtesse de Gurson I never yet saw that father, but let his son be never so decrepit or deformed, would …
51 passages
Chapter Xxvi
THAT IT IS FOLLY TO MEASURE TRUTH AND ERROR BY OUR OWN CAPACITY ‘Tis not, perhaps, without reason, that we attribute facility of belief and easiness of persuas…
8 passages
Chapter Xxvii
OF FRIENDSHIP Having considered the proceedings of a painter that serves me, I had a mind to imitate his way. He chooses the fairest place and middle of any w…
17 passages
Chapter Xxviii. & Chapter Xxix.
NINE AND TWENTY SONNETS OF ESTIENNE DE LA BOITIE TO MADAME DE GRAMMONT, COMTESSE DE GUISSEN. [They scarce contain anything but amorous complaints, expressed i…
11 passages
Chapter Xxx
OF CANNIBALS When King Pyrrhus invaded Italy, having viewed and considered the order of the army the Romans sent out to meet him; “I know not,” said he, “what …
19 passages
Chapter Xxxi
THAT A MAN IS SOBERLY TO JUDGE OF THE DIVINE ORDINANCES The true field and subject of imposture are things unknown, forasmuch as, in the first place, their ver…
2 passages
Chapter Xxxii
THAT WE ARE TO AVOID PLEASURES, EVEN AT THE EXPENSE OF LIFE I had long ago observed most of the opinions of the ancients to concur in this, that it is high tim…
2 passages
Chapter Xxxiii
THAT FORTUNE IS OFTENTIMES OBSERVED TO ACT BY THE RULE OF REASON The inconstancy and various motions of Fortune [The term Fortune, so often employed by Montai…
6 passages
Chapter Xxxiv
OF ONE DEFECT IN OUR GOVERNMENT My late father, a man that had no other advantages than experience and his own natural parts, was nevertheless of a very clear …
2 passages
Chapter Xxxv
OF THE CUSTOM OF WEARING CLOTHES Whatever I shall say upon this subject, I am of necessity to invade some of the bounds of custom, so careful has she been to s…
5 passages
Chapter Xxxvi
OF CATO THE YOUNGER [“I am not possessed with this common errour, to judge of others according to what I am my selfe. I am easie to beleeve things differing f…
6 passages
Chapter Xxxvii
THAT WE LAUGH AND CRY FOR THE SAME THING When we read in history that Antigonus was very much displeased with his son for presenting him the head of King Pyrrh…
5 passages
Chapter Xxxviii
OF SOLITUDE Let us pretermit that long comparison betwixt the active and the solitary life; and as for the fine sayings with which ambition and avarice palliat…
18 passages
Chapter Xxxix
A CONSIDERATION UPON CICERO One word more by way of comparison betwixt these two. There are to be gathered out of the writings of Cicero and the younger Pliny…
6 passages
Chapter Xl
THAT THE RELISH FOR GOOD AND EVIL DEPENDS IN GREAT MEASURE UPON THE OPINION WE HAVE OF THEM Men (says an ancient Greek sentence)--[Manual of Epictetus, c. 10.]…
25 passages
Chapter Xli
NOT TO COMMUNICATE A MAN’S HONOUR Of all the follies of the world, that which is most universally received is the solicitude of reputation and glory; which we …
3 passages
Chapter Xlii
OF THE INEQUALITY AMOUNGST US. Plutarch says somewhere that he does not find so great a difference betwixt beast and beast as he does betwixt man and man; whic…
16 passages
Chapter Xliii
OF SUMPTUARY LAWS The way by which our laws attempt to regulate idle and vain expenses in meat and clothes, seems to be quite contrary to the end designed. Th…
3 passages
Chapter Xliv
OF SLEEP Reason directs that we should always go the same way, but not always at the same pace. And, consequently, though a wise man ought not so much to give…
2 passages
Chapter Xlv
OF THE BATTLE OF DREUX [December 19, 1562, in which the Catholics, under the command of the Duc de Guise and the Constable de Montmorenci, defeated the Protest…
2 passages
Chapter Xlvi
OF NAMES What variety of herbs soever are shufed together in the dish, yet the whole mass is swallowed up under one name of a sallet. In like manner, under th…
8 passages
Chapter Xlvii
OF THE UNCERTAINTY OF OUR JUDGMENT Well says this verse: [“There is everywhere much liberty of speech.”--Iliad, xx. 249.] For example: [“Hannibal conquered…
10 passages
Chapter Xlviii
OF WAR HORSES, OR DESTRIERS I here have become a grammarian, I who never learned any language but by rote, and who do not yet know adjective, conjunction, or a…
16 passages
Chapter Xlix
OF ANCIENT CUSTOMS I should willingly pardon our people for admitting no other pattern or rule of perfection than their own peculiar manners and customs; for ‘…
9 passages
Chapter L
OF DEMOCRITUS AND HERACLITUS The judgment is an utensil proper for all subjects, and will have an oar in everything: which is the reason, that in these Essays …
5 passages
Chapter Li
OF THE VANITY OF WORDS A rhetorician of times past said, that to make little things appear great was his profession. This was a shoemaker, who can make a grea…
5 passages
Chapter Lii & Chapter Liii
OF THE PARSIMONY OF THE ANCIENTS Attilius Regulus, general of the Roman army in Africa, in the height of all his glory and victories over the Carthaginians, wr…
4 passages
Chapter Liv
OF VAIN SUBTLETIES There are a sort of little knacks and frivolous subtleties from which men sometimes expect to derive reputation and applause: as poets, who …
4 passages
Chapter Lv
OF SMELLS It has been reported of some, as of Alexander the Great, that their sweat exhaled an odoriferous smell, occasioned by some rare and extraordinary con…
3 passages
Chapter Lvi
OF PRAYERS I propose formless and undetermined fancies, like those who publish doubtful questions, to be after a disputed upon in the schools, not to establish…
13 passages
Chapter Lvii
OF AGE I cannot allow of the way in which we settle for ourselves the duration of our life. I see that the sages contract it very much in comparison of the co…
6 passages
Chapter I
OF THE INCONSTANCY OF OUR ACTIONS Such as make it their business to oversee human actions, do not find themselves in anything so much perplexed as to reconcile…
11 passages
Chapter Ii
OF DRUNKENNESS The world is nothing but variety and disemblance, vices are all alike, as they are vices, and peradventure the Stoics understand them so; but al…
15 passages
Chapter Iii
A CUSTOM OF THE ISLE OF CEA [Cos. Cea is the form of the name given by Pliny] If to philosophise be, as ‘tis defined, to doubt, much more to write at random …
19 passages
Chapter Iv
TO-MORROW’S A NEW DAY I give, as it seems to me, with good reason the palm to Jacques Amyot of all our French writers, not only for the simplicity and purity o…
4 passages
Chapter V
OF CONSCIENCE The Sieur de la Brousse, my brother, and I, travelling one day together during the time of our civil wars, met a gentleman of good sort. He was …
5 passages
Chapter Vi
USE MAKES PERFECT ‘Tis not to be expected that argument and instruction, though we never so voluntarily surrender our belief to what is read to us, should be o…
17 passages
Chapter Vii
OF RECOMPENSES OF HONOUR They who write the life of Augustus Caesar,--[Suetonius, Life of Augustus, c. 25.]--observe this in his military discipline, that he …
4 passages
Chapter Viii
OF THE AFFECTION OF FATHERS TO THEIR CHILDREN To Madame D’Estissac. MADAM, if the strangeness and novelty of my subject, which are wont to give value to thing…
23 passages
Chapter Ix
OF THE ARMS OF THE PARTHIANS ‘Tis an ill custom and unmanly that the gentlemen of our time have got, not to put on arms but just upon the point of the most ext…
6 passages
Chapter X
OF BOOKS I make no doubt but that I often happen to speak of things that are much better and more truly handled by those who are masters of the trade. You hav…
14 passages
Chapter Xi
OF CRUELTY I fancy virtue to be something else, and something more noble, than good nature, and the mere propension to goodness, that we are born into the worl…
243 passages
Chapter Xiii
OF JUDGING OF THE DEATH OF ANOTHER When we judge of another’s assurance in death, which, without doubt, is the most remarkable action of human life, we are to …
10 passages
Chapter Xiv & Chapter Xv
THAT OUR MIND HINDERS ITSELF ‘Tis a pleasant imagination to fancy a mind exactly balanced betwixt two equal desires: for, doubtless, it can never pitch upon ei…
9 passages
Chapter Xvi
OF GLORY There is the name and the thing: the name is a voice which denotes and signifies the thing; the name is no part of the thing, nor of the substance; ‘t…
24 passages
Chapter Xvii
OF PRESUMPTION There is another sort of glory, which is the having too good an opinion of our own worth. ‘Tis an inconsiderate affection with which we flatter…
50 passages
Chapter Xviii
OF GIVING THE LIE Well, but some one will say to me, this design of making a man’s self the subject of his writing, were indeed excusable in rare and famous me…
7 passages
Chapter Xix
OF LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE ‘Tis usual to see good intentions, if carried on without moderation, push men on to very vicious effects. In this dispute which has a…
6 passages
Chapter Xx
THAT WE TASTE NOTHING PURE The feebleness of our condition is such that things cannot, in their natural simplicity and purity, fall into our use; the elements …
5 passages
Chapter Xxi
AGAINST IDLENESS The Emperor Vespasian, being sick of the disease whereof he died, did not for all that neglect to inquire after the state of the empire, and e…
6 passages
Chapter Xxii
OF POSTING I have been none of the least able in this exercise, which is proper for men of my pitch, well-knit and short; but I give it over; it shakes us too …
3 passages
Chapter Xxiii
OF ILL MEANS EMPLOYED TO A GOOD END There is wonderful relation and correspondence in this universal government of the works of nature, which very well makes i…
5 passages
Chapter Xxiv
OF THE ROMAN GRANDEUR I will only say a word or two of this infinite argument, to show the simplicity of those who compare the pitiful greatness of these times…
3 passages
Chapter Xxv
NOT TO COUNTERFEIT BEING SICK There is an epigram in Martial, and one of the very good ones--for he has of all sorts--where he pleasantly tells the story of Ca…
3 passages
Chapter Xxvi & Chapter Xxvii
OF THUMBS Tacitus reports, that amongst certain barbarian kings their manner was, when they would make a firm obligation, to join their right hands close to on…
15 passages
Chapter Xxviii
ALL THINGS HAVE THEIR SEASON Such as compare Cato the Censor with the younger Cato, who killed himself, compare two beautiful natures, much resembling one anot…
4 passages
Chapter Xxix
OF VIRTUE I find by experience, that there is a good deal to be said betwixt the flights and emotions of the soul or a resolute and constant habit; and very we…
11 passages
Chapter Xxx.
OF A MONSTROUS CHILD This story shall go by itself; for I will leave it to physicians to discourse of. Two days ago I saw a child that two men and a nurse, wh…
2 passages
Chapter Xxxi
OF ANGER Plutarch is admirable throughout, but especially where he judges of human actions. What fine things does he say in the comparison of Lycurgus and Num…
10 passages