It alleges no authority – not even the Bible – for its end is to confirm what is written in Holy Scripture – and to lay the foundations on which we can build what is obscurely deduced from them. And so, in our case, it precedes the Old and New Testaments.
God has given us two books: the Book of the Universal Order of Things (or, of Nature) and the Book of the Bible. The former was given to us first, from the origin of the world: for each creature is like a letter traced by the hand of God: this Book had to be composed of a great multitude of creatures (which are as so many ‘letters’); within them is found Man. He is the main, the capital letter.
Now, just as letters and words composed from letters constitute a science by amply marshalling different sentences and meanings, so too the creatures, joined and coupled together, form various clauses and sentences, containing the science that is, before all, requisite for us.
The second Book – Holy Scripture – was subsequently given in default of the first, in which, blinded as he was, he could make out nothing, notwithstanding that the first is common to all whereas the second is not: to read the second book one must be a clerk. Moreover, the Book of Nature cannot be corrupted nor effaced nor falsely interpreted. Therefore the heretics cannot interpret it falsely: from this Book no one becomes an heretic.
With the Bible, things go differently. Nevertheless both Books derive from the same Author: God created his creatures just as he established his Scriptures. That is why they accord so well together, with no tendency to contradict each other, despite the first one’s symbolizing most closely with our nature and the second one’s being so far above it.
Since Man, at his Birth, did not find himself furnished with any science (despite his rationality and capacity for knowledge) and since no science can be acquired without books in which it is written down, it was more than reasonable (so that our capacity for learning should not have been given us in vain) that the Divine Intelligence should provide us with the means of instructing ourselves in the doctrine which alone is requisite, without a schoolmaster, naturally, by ourselves.
That is why that Intelligence made this visible world and gave it to us like a proper, familiar and infallible Book, written by his hand, in which the creatures are ranged like letters – not in accordance to our desires but according to the holy judgement of God, so as to teach us the wisdom and science of our salvation. Yet no one can [now] see and read that great Book by himself (even though it is ever open and present to our eyes) unless he is enlightened by God and cleansed of original sin. And therefore not one of the pagan philosophers of Antiquity could read this science, because they were all blinded concerning the sovereign good; even though they drew all their other sciences and all their knowledge from it, they could never perceive nor discover the wisdom which is enclosed within it nor that true and solid doctrine which guides us to eternal life.
Now, in anyone capable of discernment, there is engendered a true understanding from a combining together of the creatures like a well-ordered tissue of words. So the method of treating this subject in this treatise is to classify the creatures and to establish their relationships one with the other, taking into consideration their weightiness and what they signify and, after having drawn forth the divine wisdom which they contain, fixing it and impressing it deeply in our hearts and souls.
Now, since the Most Holy Church of Rome is the Mother of all faithful Christians, the Mother of Grace, the Rule of Faith and Truth, I submit to her correction all that is said and contained in this my work.
Chronology
1477 Ramond Eyquem, a rich merchant in Bordeaux trading in wines and salt fish, purchases the estates of Montaigne.
1497 Birth of Pierre Eyquem (Montaigne’s father) at the family estates.
1519 Pierre Eyquem, as a result of deaths in the family, inherits the estates at Montaigne and leaves to fight in Italy, entailing an absence of several years.
1528 Pierre Eyquem marries Antoinette de Louppes, of a rich and politically influential family. The Louppes, a pious Christian family, were descended from Iberian Jews.
1530 Pierre Eyquem is premier jurat (first magistrate) and Provost of Bordeaux. Birth of Etienne de la Boëtie.
1533 28 February: birth of Michel Eyquem de Montaigne at the family estates.
1534 A brother, Thomas, is born.
1535 Montaigne’s German tutor’s aim is to make Latin his first language.
This continues his father’s scheme from the outset.
Another brother, Pierre, is born.
1536 A sister, Jeanne, is born.
1539/40 Montaigne enters the Collège de Guyenne at Bordeaux, where the tutors include Mathurin Cordier, Buchanan (the humanist playwright and future Scottish Reformer) and Elie Vinet. He stays there for six years. His understanding tutors encouraged his delight in Latin poetry. He acquired some Greek, but Latin was his literary language.
1546 Montaigne probably studies philosophy in the Faculty of Arts at Bordeaux.
1548 Civil disobedience and riots in Bordeaux, fiercely suppressed. Mayors now to be elected for periods of two years only. The Huguenots become established and numerous in the City and its environs.
1552 Birth of Montaigne’s second sister, Lénor.
1554 Michel follows his father and becomes counsellor at the Cour des Aides at Périgueux. This Cour is suppressed three years later and the counsellors join the Parlement of Bordeaux. His father becomes Mayor of Bordeaux.
Birth of third sister, Marie.
1557/8 Montaigne meets Etienne de la Boëtie, also a member of the Parlement de Bordeaux; their deep and special friendship begins.
1559 Montaigne visits Paris, and follows King François II to Bar-le-Duc. Amyot’s translation of Plutarch: it greatly influences Montaigne both in thought and style.
1560 Birth of Montaigne’s brother, Bertrand.
1561 Second visit to Paris and the Royal Court, partly in connection with the serious religious strife in Guyenne.
1562 Proclamation of the Edict of the Seventeenth of January 1562 granting limited rights of assembly to members of the ‘so-called Reformed Church’. In June, Etienne de la Boëtie writes a mémoire on that Edict. Montaigne, still in Paris, makes a public profession of Roman Catholicism before the First President of the Parlement de Paris. In October he follows the Royal Army when Rouen is retaken from the Huguenots; he meets there Indians from Brasil. Massacre of Huguenots at Wassy.
1563 February: Montaigne returns to Bordeaux.
18 August: death of La Boëtie at Germinant at the home of Montaigne’s brother-in-law, Lestonnat. Montaigne writes of it to his father. Assassination of François de Guise.
1564 16 October: Montaigne finishes reading the De Rerum Natura of Lucretius and notes at the end the date and 31 (his age). The flyleaves are all covered with dense Latin notes. Several topics in the Essays go back to that initial reading. On a subsequent reading Montaigne made many notes on the pages of the text in French. This edition of Lucretius by Lambinus had been published either late in 1563 or early in 1564.
1565 January: visit of Charles IX to Bordeaux.
Marriage of Montaigne to Françoise de la Chassaigne, the daughter of a colleague in the Parlement de Bordeaux.
1568 Death of Montaigne’s father, Pierre. Montaigne becomes Seigneur de Montaigne and inherits the domain. (Difficulties with his mother over the inheritance.)
1569 Montaigne publishes his French translation of the Theologia Naturalis of Raimon Sebon (Raymundus de Sabunde), with the printer G. Chaudière of Paris.
1570 Montaigne sells his counsellorship of the Parlement de Bordeaux. Goes to Paris to publish works left by Etienne de la Boëtie (Latin, then French).
Birth of his first daughter, Toinette, who dies three months later.
1571 Montaigne returns to his estates, to consecrate his life to the Muses: to scholarship, philosphy and reflection. He receives the Ordre de Saint-Michel and is named Gentleman of the Chamber by Charles IX.
Bir
th of Léonor (the only one of his six daughters to live).
1572 24 August: massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day. Uprisings at La Rochelle (a stronghold of the Reformed Church).
Publication of the French translation of the Moral Works of Plutarch by Bishop Amyot. It joins other authors studied by Montaigne in the tower of his château.
1572–4 During the civil wars Montaigne joins the royalist forces. Montaigne dispatched to Bordeaux to advise the Parlement to strengthen their defences.
1574 Anonymous publication (adapted to Reformed propaganda) of La Boëtie's short treatise De la Servitude volontaire.
1575 Reads Sextus Empiricus’ Hypotyposes.
1576 Strikes a medal with the Greek motto I abstain. He is working on his Apology of Raimon Sebon.
1577 Henri de Navarre names Montaigne Gentleman of the Chamber. About this time suffers his first attack of the stone.
1580–81 1 March: publication of the Essays (Simon Millanges, Bordeaux). Montaigne leaves on his travels. At Paris he offers his book to Henri III, who is delighted with it. On his travels (partly to take the waters) Montaigne visits Plombières, Mülhauser, Basle, Baden, Augsburg, Munich, Innsbruck, the Tyrol, Padua, Venice, Ferrara and Rome (which was reached on 30 November). At Rome his books are impounded, but relations are good. The maestro di Palazzo offers suggestions for changes to be made by Montaigne in his Essays, without further interference. Montaigne has an audience of the Pope, Gregory XIII. On his way back he makes a pilgrimage to Loretto and has medals of the Virgin blessed for his wife and daughter as well as himself. Travels via Florence and Pisa and the baths at Lucca.
17 September: leaves on learning that royal approval requires him to become Mayor of Bordeaux.
30 September: arrives home.
1582 Second edition of the Essays published with the same publisher. Gregory XIII reforms the calendar, a reform accepted in France, but not in England.
1583 Montaigne re-elected Mayor of Bordeaux for a further two years.
1582–5 During his Mayoralty Montaigne visits Paris and often stays on his estates. Henri de Navarre, now heir to the throne, visits Montaigne and stays in his château. Montaigne is concerned with high politics as well as local affairs. In 1585 the plague ravages Bordeaux. Montaigne, absent, does not return to the town: he and his family are forced to leave their home, Montaigne, and wander about in search of a safe lodging.
1587 24 October: the King of Navarre dines at Montaigne.
1588 16 February: Montaigne, en route for Paris, is attacked and robbed by soldiers of La Ligue. His goods and freedom are restored to him. His third edition of the Essays is published in Paris by L’Angelier.
Mlle de Gournay sends him greetings from her lodgings in Paris. Montaigne visits her. She becomes eventually his fille d’alliance, virtually an adopted daughter.
June: publication of the greatly expanded edition of the Essays, which now includes a new third book (Paris, L’Angelier).
10 July: Montaigne is arrested in Paris and sent to the Bastille apparently to serve as a hostage. He is restored to freedom the same day by order of Catherine de’ Medici.
1589 2 August: death of Henri III.
Montaigne begins working on a further expanded edition of the Essays.
1590 18 June: marriage of Montaigne’s daughter Léonor to François de La Tour. Though ill, Montaigne writes to Henri de Navarre (now Henri IV), who replies to him (20 July) and invites him to come as (probably) his adviser.
1591 Birth of François de La Tour, Montaigne's grand-daughter.
1592 13 September: death of Montaigne during a Mass said in his bed-chamber.
1595 Montaigne's widow, Pierre de Brach and Marie de Gournay produce the first posthumous edition of the Essays incorporating Montaigne's last additions and changes.
1601 Death of Montaigne's mother.
1613 John Florio's translation of the Essays.
To the Reader
[A] You have here, Reader, a book whose faith can be trusted, a book which warns you from the start that I have set myself no other end but a private family one. I have not been concerned to serve you nor my reputation: my powers are inadequate for such a design. I have dedicated this book to the private benefit of my friends and kinsmen so that, having lost me (as they must do soon) they can find here again some traits of my character and of my humours. They will thus keep their knowledge of me more full, more alive. If my design had been to seek the favour of the world I would have decked myself out [C] better and presented myself in a studied gait.1 [A] Here I want to be seen in my simple, natural, everyday fashion, without [C] striving2 [A] or artifice: for it is my own self that I am painting. Here, drawn from life, you will read of my defects and my native form so far as respect for social convention allows: for had I found myself among those peoples who are said still to live under the sweet liberty of Nature's primal laws, I can assure you that I would most willingly have portrayed myself whole, and wholly naked.
And therefore, Reader, I myself am the subject of my book: it is not reasonable that you should employ your leisure on a topic so frivolous and so vain.
Therefore, Farewell:
From Montaigne;
this first of March, One thousand, five hundred and eighty.3
BOOK I
1. We reach the same end by discrepant means
[This first chapter treats of war and history, subjects appropriate to a nobleman. Montaigne introduces the irrational (astonishment, ecstasy and the fury of battle) and shows how unpredictable are the reactions of even great, brave and virtuous men. The verb to assay is used three times; explanations of motives are mere conjecture – what ‘could be said’; [A] cites the exemplum of Conrad III from the foreword to Bodin’s Method towards an Easy Understanding of History, which Montaigne was reading about 1578. In [B] he adds his own reactions.]
[A] The most common way of softening the hearts of those we have offended once they have us at their mercy with vengeance at hand is to move them to commiseration and pity [C] by our submissiveness.
[A] Yet flat contrary means, bravery and steadfastness,1 have sometimes served to produce the same effect.
Edward, Prince of Wales2 – the one who long governed our Guyenne and whose qualities and fortune showed many noteworthy characteristics of greatness – having been offended by the inhabitants of Limoges, took their town by force. The lamentations of the townsfolk, the women and the children left behind to be butchered crying for mercy and throwing themselves at his feet, did not stop him until eventually, passing ever deeper into the town, he noticed three French noblemen who, alone, with unbelievable bravery, were resisting the thrust of his victorious army. Deference and respect for such remarkable valour first blunted the edge of his anger; then starting with those three he showed mercy on all the other inhabitants of the town.
Scanderbeg, Prince of Epirus, was pursuing one of his soldiers in order to kill him. The soldier, having assayed all kinds of submissiveness and supplications to try and appease him, as a last resort resolved to await him, sword in hand. Such resolution stopped his Master’s fury short; having seen him take so honourable a decision he granted him his pardon. (This example will allow of a different interpretation only from those who have not read of the prodigious strength and courage of that Prince.)
The Emperor Conrad III had besieged Guelph, Duke of Bavaria; no matter how base and cowardly were the satisfactions offered him, the most generous condition he would vouchsafe was to allow the noblewomen who had been besieged with the Duke to come out honourably on foot, together with whatever they could carry on their persons. They, with greatness of heart, decided to carry out on their shoulders their husbands, their children and the Duke himself. The Emperor took such great pleasure at seeing the nobility of their minds that he wept for joy and quenched all the bitterness of that mortal deadly hatred he had harboured against the Duke; from then on he treated him and his family kindly.
[B] Both of these means would have swayed me easily, fo
r I have a marvellous weakness towards mercy and clemency – so much so that I would be more naturally moved by compassion than by respect. Yet for the Stoics pity is a vicious emotion: they want us to succour the afflicted but not to give way and commiserate with them.
The Complete Essays Page 7