The Complete Essays (210 page)
Read The Complete Essays Online
Authors: Michel de Montaigne
Tags: #Essays, #Philosophy, #Literary Collections, #History & Surveys, #General
1
. Plutarch,
Life of Marius;
Bouchet,
Annales d’Acquitaine;
Seneca,
De Clementia
.
2
. Publius Syrus cited by Aulus Gellius,
Attic Nights
, XVII, 14.
3
. Seneca,
Epistles
, XX, 5.
4
. Demosthenes (?),
On the Fallen at Chaeronea;
then, Horace,
Epistles
, I, i, 98–9.
5
. Horace,
Satires
, II, vii, 82; Lucretius, III, 1070–3; Homer, cited in Latin by St Augustine,
City of God
, V, xxxviii.
6
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Empedocles
. Also cited in Erasmus’
Apophthegmata
.
7
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, IV,
Antigonus Rex Macedonum
, XXXIII.
8
. Horace,
Epistles
, II, ii, 36; 26–40 (where the soldier’s tale is told).
9
. That is, Mechmet II. Cf. Nicolas Chalcocondylas (tr. Blaise de Vigenère),
De la décadence de l’empire grec
, 1584.
10
. That each individual is swayed by a good guardian angel and a bad angel derives from platonizing interpretations of Matthew 18:10; Rabelais accepts it (
Tiers Livre
, TLF, VII). (Cf. Erasmus,
Adages
, I, I, LXXII,
Genius malus.)
11
. ‘I make a distinction’, a term used in formal debates to reject or modify an opponent’s assertion.
12
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, II, xxvii, 65.
13
. Ibid., IV, xxxvii, 79. Alexander murdered Clitus when drunk.
14
. Cicero,
De officiis
, I, xxi, 71.
15
. Cicero,
Paradoxa
, V, i; Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XX, 2–3.
16
. Several echoes of Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXI and XCII and of other Epistles throughout this chapter.
17
. Cicero,
De senectute
, VII.
18
. Herodotus,
Historia
, V, xxix.
19
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, CXX, 22. In the following sentence ‘ambition’, as often, means inordinate ambition; so too covetousness (
‘avarice’
in the French original) means an inordinate desire to obtain, and retain, not only wealth but honour: its sense is close to that of inordinate ambition. Montaigne holds that bad motives can produce admirable qualities.
20
. Tibullus, II, i, 75–6.
1
. For Stoics all vices are equally evil; all virtues equally good. Horace (as cited) denies that:
Satires
, I, i, 107; I, iii, 115–17.
2
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Socratica
, XXXIII.
3
. The Germanic peoples.
4
. Lucretius, III, 475–8.
5
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXXIII, 16; Horace,
Odes
, III, xxi, 14–17.
6
. Flavius Josephus (the Jewish historian):
De vita sua
.
7
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXXIII, 14–15 (for both Piso and Cossa).
8
. Virgil,
Bucolica
, VI, 15 (adapted).
9
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXXIII, 12–13.
10
. Juvenal,
Satires
, XV, 47–8.
11
. Diodorus Siculus, XV, xxvi.
12
. Pseudo-Gallus, I, 47–8.
13
. [A]:
That true portrait of Stoic virtue
, Cato… (Montaigne had first confused Cato of Utica with Cato the Censor).
14
. Horace,
Odes
, III, xxi, 11–12.
15
. ’88: dull.
Plato attributes to it the same effect on the mind
. [B] And we can… (Cf. Erasmus,
Adages
, IV, III, LVIII,
Non est dithyrambus qui hibit aquam;
Rabelais,
Tiers Livre
, TLF,
Prologue
, 175ff.; Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Propos de Table
, 364B; 420A.) Joannes Sylvius (Dubois) was a doctor and pharmacologist of note. He died in 1576.
16
. ’95: life:
and where do you hope more rightly to find them among the natural pleasures?
But…
17
. The
Libro aureo del emperador Marco Aurelio
of Bishop Antonio de Guevara.
18
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Anacharsis
.
19
. Cf. Tiraquellus,
De legibus connubialibus
, XIII, §147, citing Plato’s
Laws
.
20
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives of Stilpo
and of
Arcesilaus
.
24
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, VI, 1.
25
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Publicola
, III.
26
. The Stoics.
27
. The Epicureans; Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, V, ix, 27, citing Metrodorus the pupil of Epicurus.
28
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives of Philosophers
, I, civ.
29
. Flavius Josephus,
De Macabaeorum martyrio
.
30
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Antithenes Atheniensis
, III; other examples from Aulus Gellius, IX, v, and Sextus Empiricus,
Hypotyposes
, III, xx.
31
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, IV, 158–9.
32
. Seneca,
De tranquillitate
, XV (a major borrowing).
33
. Plato,
Timaeus
, 71D–72A.
1
. Several examples, all from Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
.
2
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, V, XIV, 42; then many borrowings from Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXIX-LXXVIII, especially LXX.
3
. Tacitus,
Annales
, XIII, lvi; Seneca,
Phoenissae
, 151–3.
4
. Cicero,
De finibus
, III, xviii, 60.
5
. Diogenes Laertius,
Lives of Aristippus
and
of Speucippus
(up to this point, Montaigne’s position is that of Seneca).
6
. [A] originally read: For,
apart from that authority which, when forbidding murder, included self-murder in it
, many
philosophers
hold…
7
. The great commonplace from Plato’s
Phaedo:
see St Augustine,
City of God
, I, xxii; Erasmus,
Adages
, IV, VI, LXXXI,
Nemo sibi nascitur
, Tiraquellus’ discussion for and against suicide in
De nobilitate
, XXXI (where Plato is cited, §561).
8
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, IV, 434–7:
9
. St Augustine,
City of God
, I, xxii and xxiv.
10
. Horace,
Odes
, IV, iv, 57–60.
11
. Seneca (the dramatist),
Phoenissae
, 190–93.
12
. Martial, XI, lvi, 15–16.
13
. Horace,
Odes
, III, iii, 7–8.
14
. Martial, II, lxxv, 2.
15
. Lucan,
Pharsalia
, VII, 104–7.
16
. Lucretius, III, 79–82.
17
. Plato,
Laws
, 9. (See Tiraquellus,
De nobilitate
, XXXI, §561.)
18
. Lucretius, III, 862–4.
19
. A concept attributed to Zeno the philosopher.
20
. Tiraquellus,
De legibus connubialibus
, IV, §32 (after Plutarch’s
Famous Women
).
21
. Plutarch,
Life of Cleomenes
. (The man’s name was
Therycion
.)
22
. In the
Saturnalia
of Justus Lipsius, attributed to Pentadius.
23
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXX, 7.
24
. Flavius Josephus,
De vita sua
.
25
. An addition by Montaigne has gone astray from the Bordeaux copy. In ’95 we read: protect.
In the battle of Serisolles Monsieur d’Enghien made two assays at slashing his throat with his sword, despairing of the fortune of a battle, which, where he was, was going badly, and in his haste nearly deprived himself of the pleasure of so fair a victory
. I have…
26
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XIII, 11.
27
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, I, 425–7.
28
. Pliny,
Hist., nat.
, XXV. The stone was Montaigne’s complaint.
29
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LVIII, 36.
30
. Livy, XXXVII, xlvi.
31
. Ibid., XLV, xxvi.
32
. Narrated by Guillaume Paradin,
Histoire de son temps
.
33
. Flavius Josephus,
Jewish Antiquities
, XII, v.
34
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXX, 10.
35
. II Maccabees 14:37–46 – virtually word for word from the Latin Vulgate. (The English Geneva Bible warns the reader that there are occasions when Biblical
exempla
are not to be followed: this suicide is one of them.)
36
. Cf. St Augustine,
City of God
, I, xxv–xxvi; he feared that some virgins might, despite themselves, enjoy rape. Nevertheless, except when individually counselled to do so by God, desire to avoid such pleasure does not justify suicide. Vives in his notes cites Montaigne’s examples of Pelagia and Sophronia, after Eusebius’
Ecclesiasti cal History
.
37
. Allusion to some
conteur
, not a theologian.
38
. Clément Marot,
De nenny
(ed. Guiffrey), IV, 241.
39
. Tacitus,
Annals
, V.
40
. Ibid., XV.
41
. Herodotus, I, ccxiii.
42
. Herodotus, VII, cvii.
43
. Simon Goulart,
Histoire du Portugal
. Examples follow from Tacitus,
Annals
, Livy, Quintus Curtius and Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Du trop parler
, 93D–E.
44
. St Paul, Philippians 1:23; Romans 7:24; Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xxxiv, 84. Contemporary theologians, philosophers and jurisconsults used these texts to show that suicide is often both reasonable and natural, but forbidden by God’s ordinance which supersedes both reason and nature. (Cf. Bartholomew of Medina,
Expositio in Secundam Secundae
(of Thomas Aquinas), Salamanca, 1588; Tiraquellus,
De nobilitate
, XXXI, §§ 512–13.
45
. Jean de Joinville,
Histoire et cronique de Saint Louis
, LI. (
Outremer
: the Crusader Kingdoms, and the Near East generally.)
46
. Orissa. This is an account of the Juggernaut (Krishna’s idol dragged in a huge carriage, beneath whose wheels pilgrims were said to immolate themselves).
