99. Seneca, Ep. moral. 124, 22 (reading multis for mutis).
100. Ovid, Metam., I, 84; it was often (as by Sebond) taken very seriously (cf. J. Du Bellay, Regrets, TLF, Sonnet 53, notes), but it does not commend itself to unaided, or unilluminated, human reason.
101. Cicero, De nat. deorum, II, liv, 133 ff. (A long praise of the Immortals’ care in shaping Man. It is indebted to Plato’s Timaeus.)
102. Ennius, apud Cicero, ibid., I, xxxv, 97.
103. ’88: vital, noble organs closest to ours is, according to the doctors, the pig…
104. ’88: beauty. And since Man did not have the wherewithal to present himself naked to the sight of the world, he was right to hide himself behind the coats of others: wool, feathers, hide or silk, and other borrowed commodities…
105. Ovid, Remedia amoris, 429.
106. Lucretius, IV, 1182 (Lambin, p. 359 f.).
107. Plutarch, tr. Amyot, Des conceptions communes contre les Stoiques, 577 AB; cf. Erasmus, In Praise of Folly, XXXV and XI.
’88: to the mask of…
108. Cf. p. 573.
’88: daft. All our perfection, then, consists in being men. We do not…
109. Socrates: Xenophon, Memorabilia, I, iv. 12; Cicero, De nat. deorum, III, xxvii, 69.
110. Epicureans, especially, accused Aristotle of disloyalty and of a misspent youth.
111. Horace, Epodes, VIII, 17; Juvenal, XIV, 156.
112. ’88: for: ‘Among… dignity’, this sentence reads: Learning is even less necessary in the service of life than glory and such other qualities.
113. ’88: only obedience can…
114. References to the Fall, Genesis, III, and to Homer apud Cicero, De fin., V, xviii, 49. Cf. Plutarch (tr. Amyot), Contre Colotes, 597 FG, for the remark attributed to Epicurus.
115. ’88: he knows something. That is why simplicity and ignorance are so strongly advocated by our religion as elements properly conducive to subjection, belief and obedience. All the philosophers… (Colossians 2:8. Cf. Augustine, City of God, VIII, ix, a key text for Christian folly, the praise of which is soon to be taken up by Montaigne.)
116. Horace, Epistles, I, i. 106; John Stobaeus, Apophthegmata, Sermo 21.
117. Plutarch, Contre les Stoïques, 578 G.
118. Plutarch, Que les bestes brutes usent de raison, 270 F.
119. Cicero: Tusc. disput., V, xxxvi.
120. Lucretius, V, 8; Montaigne discusses his madness in II, 2, ‘On drunkenness’: ‘That great poet Lucretius vainly philosophizes and braces himself: there he was, driven out of his senses by a love potion.’
121. Cicero, Acad.: Lucullus, II, xxiii, 73; De finibus, II, xiii, 40: ‘As Aristotle says: Man is born for thought and action: he is, as it were, a mortal god.’
122. Plutarch, Contre les Stoïques, 583 E; cited with Seneca in La Primaudaye, Académie françoyse, 1581, p. 5; Cicero, De nat. deorum, III, xxxvi, 87; Seneca, Epist. moral., LIII, 11–12.
123. ’88: footman. It is all wind and words. But supposing…
124. Cicero, Tusc. disput., II, xiii; De fin., V, xxxi, 94.
125. ’88: natural talent. Knowledge sharpens our feelings for ills rather than lightening them. What…
126. S. Goulard, Hist. du Portugal, II, xv, 46v°.
127. Aristotle, Problems, 30–I. (For Tasso’s madness, see Montaigne and Melancholy, p. 371ff.)
128. Livy, XXX, xxi; La Boëtie (ed. Bonnefon, 1892, p. 234); Ennius, apud Cicero, De fin., II, xiii, 41.
129. Cicero, Tusc. disput., III, vi, 12; III, xv, 33; De fin., II, xxxii, 105 (citing, in translation, Euripides’ Andromeda); I. xvii, 57; II, xxxii, 104 – and contexts. The Italian verse is otherwise unknown.
130. Epicurus (in Cicero, De fin., II, iii, 7 and in Lucretius, III, 1043–4); Seneca (the dramatist) Oedipus, III, 17.
131. Horace, Epist. I, v, 14.
132. ’88: vain fantasies. (What follows is virtually all from Erasmus’ adage, In nihil sapiendo jucundissima vita (including references to Horace, Epist., II, ii, 138; Sophocles, Ajax, 554; Ecclesiastes I:18). Also, Erasmus, In Praise of Folly, XXXVII.)
133. ’88 onwards: All Philosophy agrees… (The remedies of Philosophy are not of course those of revealed religion (which supersedes them when there is a clash). But Christianity welcomes Philosophy. For the usual view, see Melanchthon, On the First Book of the Ethics of Aristotle, ‘On the distinction between Philosophy and the Christian Religion’, Opera, 1541, IV, 127.)
134. Seneca, Epist. moral. LXX, 15–16 (adapted); Cicero, Tusc. disput., V, xli; Horace, Epist., II, ii, 213; Lucretius, III, 1039 (Lambin, pp. 266–7); Plutarch, Contre les Stoïques, 564 CD; Diogenes Laertius, Lives, Crates; Plutarch, tr. Amyot, Comment l’on pourra apparcevoir si l’on amende et profite en l’exercice de la vertu, 114 EF; for Seneca’s praise of Quintus Sextius the Elder, cf. Seneca, Epist. moral., XCVIII, 13.
135. H.C. Agrippa, De Vanitate omnium scientiarum et de excellentia verbi Dei, 1537, I. St Paul is loosely paraphrased here, not quoted, on Christian Folly.
136. Idem (where Valentian also appears for Valentinian).
137. Ariosto, Orlando furioso, XIV, § 84.
138. Varro apud Nonius Marcellus, Opera, 201, 6.
139. ’88: not thinking anything of itself.
140. Genesis; then Socrates apud John Stobaeus, Apophthegmata, Sermo XXII (a saying inscribed in Montaigne’s library).
141. Plato, Apology for Socrates, 6.
142. Sayings inscribed on Montaigne’s library; the first from Ecclesiasticus 10:9; the second, ascribed to ‘Eccl. 7’, may perhaps be a paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 7:1 (Vulgate) or a loose rendering of the Septuagint.
143. Augustine, De ordine, II, xvi, and Tacitus, De Moribus Germanorum, XXXIV, both cited in Justus Lipsius, Politicorum sive Civilis Doctrinae, 1584,I, ii.
144. Plato, Laws, VII (Ficino, 1546, p. 837); tr. Cicero, Timaeus, II (in Fragmentis).
145. Lucretius, V, 121 (Lambin, pp. 383–4).
146. Cicero, De nat. deorum, III, xv, 38, and quoting from I, xvii, 45. (Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics, VII, i. 1–2 may be in mind also.)
147. I Corinthians, 1:19–21, a key text for Christian Folly (cf. Erasmus, In Praise of Folly, LXV).
148. ’88: his own vileness and his weakness…
149. Plutarch, Comment l’on peut apparcevoir si l’on amende et profite en l’exercice de la vertu: 116 EF.
150. Cicero, De nat. deorum, I, vii, 17.
151. Diogenes Laertius, Lives, Pherecides, I, 122.
152. Socrates; cf. Plato, Apology for Socrates, Lucretius, ed. Lambin, 309, etc.
’88: ever was (and who had no other just cause to be called wise apart from this saying), when…
153. Plato, Politicus, 19, 277.
154. Cicero, Academica, I, xii, 44.
155. According to H. C. Agrippa, De Vanitate omnium scientiarum, I.
156. Cicero, De divinatione, II, iii, 8.
157. Lucretius, III, 1048; 1046 (Lambin pp. 266–8).
158. ’88: knowledge. Aristotle, Epicurus, Stoics…
159. Sextus Empiricus, Hypotyposes, I, i, I; xix, xxii, xxiii. With the opening words of this book Montaigne begins his first major borrowing from one of the main sources of scepticism.
160. Lucretius, IV, 469–70 (Lambin, p. 308). With these words begin Lucretius’ dense criticism of scepticism. Montaigne borrows much from him and the commentary of Lambin.
161. Cicero, Acad.: Lucullus, II, xlvii, 144–45.
162. Sextus Empiricus, Hypotyposes, I, XII, 30; XIII, 33; cf. Rabelais, Tiers Livre, TLF, XXXVI.
163. Cicero, Acad… Lucullus, II, iii, 8–9, the source of both quotations.
164. For Plato, Forms are created: for Aristotle, they exist from all eternity.
165. Cicero, Acad.: Lucullus, II, xxxiii, 107, and I, xii, 45–6.
166. These and similar aphorisms from Sextus Empiricus were inscribed in Montaigne’s library; Hypotyposes, I, 6, 21, 23, 26 and 27.
167. Sextus Empiricus,
Hypotyposes, I, xi, 23–24, followed by quotation from Cicero, De divinat., I, xviii, 35.
168. ’88: himself. Laertius in the Life of Pyrrho says (and both Lucianus and Aulus Gellius incline the same way) describe him… (Laertius’ Life was printed in Montaigne’s copy of Sextus.)
169. Major borrowings follow from Cicero, Acad.: Lucullus, II, xxxi, 99–101.
170. ’88: greater probability nor a greater appearance…
’88: the divine instruction and belief, annihilating…
171. This ‘quotation’ from Ecclesiastes figures in Latin in Montaigne’s library as ‘Fruere jucunde praesentibus, caetera extra te’. (Its actual source is unknown.) Then, [C], Psalm 94 (93): II.
172. Plato, Timaeus, 29 (Ficino, p. 705). The Latin quotation is from Livy, Hist., xxvi, 22, 14. A marginal note authorized by Marie de Gournay reads, ‘Perhaps Seneca in Epistles’ – a wrong guess.
173. Cicero: Tusc. disput., I, ix.; Timaeus, III (in Fragmentis).
174. ’88: obscurity, (as for example on the subject of the immortality of the soul) so deep…
175. Cicero, De nat. deorum, I, v, 10 (adapted).
176. Plato called a dog ‘philosophical’ since it strives to get at the marrow of a bare bone (Republic, III, 375E; cf. Rabelais, Gargantua, TLF, p. 13).
177. Cicero, Acad.: Lucullus, II, xlv, 139.
178. Lucretius, I, 639–42, incorporating matter in Lambin, p. 63 (Vitruvius, Cicero, etc.).
179. Cicero, De officiis, I, vi, 19: Diogenes Laertius, Lives: Aristippus, II, 91; Zeno, VII, 32; Plutarch, tr. Amyot, Life of Alexander.
180. Sallust apud Justus Lipsius, Politicorum, 1584, I, 10.
181. ’88: Learning and philosophy have despised… (Sextus Empiricus, Hypotyposes, I, XXXI, 221.)
182. Cf. Seneca, Epist, LXXXVIII; Diogenes Laertius, Lives, Socrates (ad fin.)..
183. Plato, Theaetetus, 150–1.
’95: circumscribed for circumcised.
184. ’88 (in place of [C]) they do interlard them often with traits, dogmatist in form. In whom can one see that more clearly than in our Plutarch? How differently he treats the same subjects! How many times does he present us with two or three incompatible causes and divers reasons for the same subject, without selecting the one we ought to follow? What else can that refrain mean…
185. Cited from Plutarch, tr. Amyot, Des oracles qui ont cessé, 348B: ‘Les oeuvres de Dieu en diverses/Façons nous donnent des traverses.’
186. Cicero, Acad.: Lucullus, II, V, 14; Wisdom of Solomon 9:14. Cf. Augustine, City of God, XII, 16.
187. ’88: mind; and desire moderation. Democritus… (Seneca, Epist., LXXXVIII, 36.)
188. Plutarch, tr. Amyot; Propos de Table, 368 G-H.; King Philopappus (Plutarch, loc. cit.); Seneca, Epist., LXXXVIII, 45.
189. Cicero, Acad.: Lucullus, II, xli, 127.
190. Plutarch, tr. Amyot: Que l’on ne sçauroit vivre selon la doctrine d’Epicurus, 282H-283A.
191. Marcus Annaeus Seneca, Suasoriae, IV.
192. Diogenes, cf. Diogenes Laertius apud Guy de Brués, Dialogues, contre les nouveaux Academiciens, que tout ne consiste point en opinion, 1557, p. 46.
193. ’88: public, their account of religions, for example: for it is not forbidden for us to draw advantage even from a lie, if needs be. With that…
194. Diogenes Laertius, Lives, Plato, II, lxxx; Plato, Republic, II (end), III (beginning); ibid., V, p. 459, tr. Ficino, p. 591.
195. Quintilian, II, 17, 4.
196. Valerius Soranus apud Augustine, City of God, VII, 11.
’88 (in place of [C] ): For the deities to which men have wished to give a form of their own invention are harmful, full of errors and impiety. That is why of all the religions…
197. Paul’s sermon in Acts 17:23: ‘I found also an altar with this inscription “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”.’ By adding hidden Montaigne links this text to God as Deus absconditus (Introduction, p. xxx). Even good natural religion requires grace if it is to take root and grow.
198. Plutarch, tr. Amyot, Life of Numa.
199. ’88: required, because of the people’s conception), I think…
200. Ronsard, Remonstrance au peuple de France, 64 f.
201. There follows a massive borrowing, condensed, from Cicero, De nat. deorum, I, X, 25-xii, 30 (with some errors), with additions from ibid., I, viii, 18 f.; xxiv, 63, and De divinat., II, XVII, 40.
202. Ennius apud Cicero, De divinat. II, 1, 104.
203. ’88: deify: for adoring things of our own kind, sickly, corruptible and mortal, as all Antiquity did, of men whom they had seen living and dying and disturbed by our passions surpasses…
204. Lucretius, V, 123 (Lambin, pp. 383–4); Cicero, De nat. deor., II, xxviii, 70 (cited with Augustine, City of God, IV, xxx, in mind); Cicero, De nat. deorum, II, xxiii, 59 ff.; I, xi. 28; xvi, 42; Persius, Satires, II, 62 and 61.
205. St Augustine, City of God, XVIII, v.
206. Cicero, De nat. deorum, I, xxxii, 90; also Tusc. disput., I, xxvi, 65, apud Augustine, City of God, IV, xxvi.
207. Plato, Gorgias, 524a; Repub., 614E; Plutarch, De la face qui apparoist dedans le ronde de la lune, 626 CD. For the implications of this passage for Montaigne’s conception of the after-life, see Montaigne and Melancholy, pp. 131–2, and note 1.
208. ’88: has justly clung to him… (From Antiquity onwards we find the term Divinus Plato: in the Renaissance it acknowledges Plato’s inspiration and sometimes his preoccupation with the world of the soul.)
209. ’88: a vile creature like man… our languishing grasp… or that our taste was firm enough to do so?
210. ’88: hope for or can do, we know the weakness and inadequacy of her forces: that…
211. ’88: within mortal, finite…
212. I Corinthians II:9, adapted. (The text for Pauline ecstasy; see Erasmus: Ecstasy and the Praise of Folly, pp. 174–9; Montaigne and Melancholy, p. 131.)
213. Ovid, Tristia, III, 11, 27; Lucretius, III, 756–7 (Lambin, p. 241).
214. Porphyry in St Augustine, City of God, X, xxx.
215. Lucretius, III, 846 (Lambin, pp. 247–51); III, 563–4 (Lambin, pp. 227–8); III, 860 (Lambin, pp. 251–4); III, 845 (Lambin, pp. 247–50).
216. ’88: our vicious deeds… brought us forth… prevent our failure?
217. Plutarch, tr. Amyot, Pourquoy la justice divine diffère quelquefois ses malefices, 259 C.
218. Livy, XLI, 16; XLV, 33; Arrian, Alexander, VI, 19.
’88 (in place of [C]): flowers: once with the pleasure of a blood-drenched vengeance – witness that widely received notion of sacrifices: and that God took pleasure in murder, and in the torture of things made, preserved and created by him, and that he can rejoice in the blood of innocent souls, not only of animals, which are powerless, but of men…
219. Julius Caesar, De bello gallico, VI, xvi; Virgil, Aeneid, X, 517.
220. Herodotus, IV, 94; VII, 114; Plutarch, tr. Amyot, De la superstition, 124 A; Lucretius, I, 102 (Lambin, pp. 13–15). The reference to Themistitan is untraced.
221. Plutarch, De la superstition, 123 G–124 A; Les Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens, 227 EF; Lucretius, I, 98; Cicero, De nat. deorum, III, vi, 15.
’88: to requite divine justice with our torment and our suffering; the Spartans…
222. Much from St Augustine, City of God, VI, 10 (citing a lost book of Seneca’s Against Superstition). Also, Lucretius, I, 82 (Lambin, pp. 12–15).
223. I Corinthians I:25, a central text for Christian Folly since Augustine, not least for Erasmus.
224. Diogenes Laertius, Lives, Stilpon, II, 117.
225. For Platonizing thinkers the fool’s soul (being divine in origin) remains rational; the knave reasons incorrectly about what is good but is not irrational (cf. n. 2). With what follows, cf. Ronsard, Remonstrance, 119 f.
226. Lucretius, VI, 678 (Lambin, pp. 508–10, reading sint not sunt). A lesson against homocentricity, inscribed in Montaigne’s library. Platonic-Christian arguments are marshalled against A
ristotle’s denial of a creation ex nihilo. Allusions follow to biblical miracles: Elijah’s rapture to heaven (II Kings 2:11) and/or to Christ’s bodily Ascension; the halting of the Sun in Joshua 10:12; the Flood in Genesis 6–9 (cf. Genesis 1:9, 7:4); Psalm 104 (103):6–9; Christ’s walking on the water (Matthew 14:25); Christ’s appearing in an enclosed room (John 20:19 ff.); Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:22–7). The final miracle is the Real Presence of Christ’s risen body in Heaven and in each Eucharist. In the background is the Platonic doctrine of the great chain of being (God created all possible forms). With the cave Montaigne exploits the central Platonic myth: man, living as it were in a cave, mistakes shadows on the wall for the reality outside his cave which casts those shadows.
227. ’80: the most famous and noble minds… movements make more credible. Now, if there are several worlds, as Plato, Epicurus… Lucretius, II, 1085 f., 1077 f., 1064 f. (Lambin pp. 180–2). Montaigne echoes the commentary (‘There is no verisimilitude in this world’s having been created alone’ etc.) and the commentary on pp. 178–79 (allusions to Democritus after Cicero, De fin., and Acad.: Lucullus). In the Timaeus (31 AB; 55DE) Plato defends (against the atomists) the essential unity of the Universe but believes in a world-soul, as did the Christian Origen (St Augustine, City of God, XI, 23). Augustine (XIII, 16 and 17) did not reject Plato’s contention (Timaeus 41D-42A) that the stars had souls and could be rendered immortal. Echoes in Montaigne of Plutarch, tr. Amyot, Des Opinions des Philosophes, 446A-F.
The Complete Essays Page 163