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Essays, Book One

Michel de Montaigne/1580 / Renaissance
CustomDeathHuman InconsistencyJudgment

Essays in the Skepticism tradition, oriented around custom and death.

Montaigne's Essays, Book One helped invent the modern essay as a form of skeptical self-examination. Moving through anecdotes, classical examples, and personal reflection, it tests judgments about custom, education, friendship, fear, death, and the instability of human conduct.

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Chapters

The structural skeleton of the work

Section 1

Chapter I. THAT MEN BY VARIOUS WAYS ARRIVE AT THE SAME END

5 excerpts

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Courage2 excerptsRevenge2 excerptsAdmiration1 excerptBravery1 excerptCompassion1 excerpt

Submission vs Bravery

The most usual way of appeasing the indignation of such as we have any way offended, when we see them in possession of the power of revenge, and find that we absolutely lie at their mercy, is by submission, to move them to commiseration and pity; and yet bravery, constancy, and resolution, however quite contrary means, have sometimes served to produce the same effect.

Section 2

Chapter II. OF SORROW

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Sorrow4 excerptsExpression2 excerptsArt1 excerptExpression Of Emotion1 excerptGrief1 excerpt

Petrified by Grief

Which is also the reason why the poets feign the miserable mother, Niobe, having first lost seven sons, and then afterwards as many daughters (overwhelmed with her losses), to have been at last transformed into a rock-- “Diriguisse malis,” [“Petrified with her misfortunes.”--Ovid, Met., vi. 304.] thereby to express that melancholic, dumb, and deaf stupefaction, which benumbs all our faculties, when oppressed with accidents greater than we are able to bear. And, indeed, the violence and impression of an excessive grief must of necessity astonish the soul, and wholly deprive her of her ordinary functions: as it happens to every one of us, who, upon any sudden alarm of very ill news, find ourselves surprised, stupefied, and in a manner deprived of all power of motion, so that the soul, beginning to vent itself in tears and lamentations, seems to free and disengage itself from the sudden oppression, and to have obtained some room to work itself out at greater liberty.

Section 3

Chapter III. THAT OUR AFFECTIONS CARRY THEMSELVES BEYOND US

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Death4 excerptsWisdom2 excerptsCivic Duty1 excerptContentment1 excerptDetachment1 excerpt

Funerals for the Living

And it was a holy saying of a saint, “Curatio funeris, conditio sepultura: pompa exequiarum, magis sunt vivorum solatia, quam subsidia mortuorum.” Which made Socrates answer Crito, who, at death, asked him how he would be buried: “How you will,” said he. “If I were to concern myself beyond the present about this affair, I should be most tempted, as the greatest satisfaction of this kind, to imitate those who in their lifetime entertain themselves with the ceremony and honours of their own obsequies beforehand, and are pleased with beholding their own dead countenance in marble. Happy are they who can gratify their senses by insensibility, and live by their death!”

Section 6

Chapter VI. THAT THE HOUR OF PARLEY DANGEROUS

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Ethics1 excerptFairness1 excerptHonor1 excerptIntegrity1 excerptSportsmanship1 excerpt

Stealing Victory Is Shameful

And yet more generous was the answer of that great Alexander to Polypercon who was persuading him to take the advantage of the night's obscurity to fall upon Darius. “By no means,” said be; “it is not for such a man as I am to steal a victory, ‘Malo me fortunae poeniteat, quam victoria pudeat.’”

Section 7

Chapter VII. THAT THE INTENTION IS JUDGE OF OUR ACTIONS

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Conscience1 excerptJustice1 excerptRestitution1 excerpt

Painful Restitution

I have taken notice of several in my time, who, convicted by their consciences of unjustly detaining the goods of another, have endeavoured to make amends by their will, and after their decease; but they had as good do nothing, as either in taking so much time in so pressing an affair, or in going about to remedy a wrong with so little dissatisfaction or injury to themselves. They owe, over and above, something of their own; and by how much their payment is more strict and incommodious to themselves, by so much is their restitution more just meritorious.

Section 9

Chapter IX. OF LIARS

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Lying3 excerptsTruth3 excerptsFalsehood2 excerptsMemory2 excerptsDefinition1 excerpt

Many Faces of Lies

If falsehood had, like truth, but one face only, we should be upon better terms; for we should then take for certain the contrary to what the liar says: but the reverse of truth has a hundred thousand forms, and a field indefinite, without bound or limit. The Pythagoreans make good to be certain and finite, and evil, infinite and uncertain. There are a thousand ways to miss the white, there is only one to hit it.

Section 10

Chapter X. OF QUICK OR SLOW SPEECH

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Creativity2 excerptsSelf-Knowledge2 excerptsChance Vs Intention1 excerptMemory1 excerptSpontaneity1 excerpt

Solicited Not Jostled

But besides this, the solicitude of doing well, and a certain striving and contending of a mind too far strained and overbent upon its undertaking, breaks and hinders itself like water, that by force of its own pressing violence and abundance, cannot find a ready issue through the neck of a bottle or a narrow sluice. In this condition of nature, of which I am now speaking, there is this also, that it would not be disordered and stimulated with such passions as the fury of Cassius (for such a motion would be too violent and rude); it would not be jostled, but solicited; it would be roused and heated by unexpected, sudden, and accidental occasions. If it be left to itself, it flags and languishes; agitation only gives it grace and vigour.

Section 12

Chapter XII. OF CONSTANCY

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Fear2 excerptsStoicism2 excerptsConstancy1 excerptCourage1 excerptEmotional Moderation1 excerpt

Flexible 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 and inconveniences that threaten us; nor, consequently, that we shall not fear lest they should surprise us: on the contrary, all decent and honest ways and means of securing ourselves from harms, are not only permitted, but, moreover, commendable, and the business of constancy chiefly is, bravely to stand to, and stoutly to suffer those inconveniences which are not possibly to be avoided. So that there is no supple motion of body, nor any movement in the handling of arms, how irregular or ungraceful soever, that we need condemn, if they serve to protect us from the blow that is made against us.

Section 13

Chapter XIII. THE CEREMONY OF THE INTERVIEW OF PRINCES

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Section 14

Chapter XIV. THAT MEN ARE JUSTLY PUNISHED FOR BEING OBSTINATE IN THE DEFENCE

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Obstinacy1 excerptReason1 excerptValour1 excerptVirtue1 excerptWar1 excerpt

Valour's Slippery Edge

Valour has its bounds as well as other virtues, which, once transgressed, the next step is into the territories of vice; so that by having too large a proportion of this heroic virtue, unless a man be very perfect in its limits, which upon the confines are very hard to discern, he may very easily unawares run into temerity, obstinacy, and folly. From this consideration it is that we have derived the custom, in times of war, to punish, even with death, those who are obstinate to defend a place that by the rules of war is not tenable; otherwise men would be so confident upon the hope of impunity, that not a henroost but would resist and seek to stop an army.

Section 15

Chapter XV. OF THE PUNISHMENT OF COWARDICE

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Section 16

Chapter XVI. A PROCEEDING OF SOME AMBASSADORS

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Authority1 excerptConversation1 excerptDiscipline1 excerptLearning1 excerptObedience1 excerpt

Discipline Over Expertise

We so willingly slip the collar of command upon any pretence whatever, and are so ready to usurp upon dominion, every one does so naturally aspire to liberty and power, that no utility whatever derived from the wit or valour of those he employs ought to be so dear to a superior as a downright and sincere obedience. To obey more upon the account of understanding than of subjection, is to corrupt the office of command ; insomuch that P. Crassus, the same whom the Romans reputed five times happy, at the time when he was consul in Asia, having sent to a Greek engineer to cause the greater of two masts of ships that he had taken notice of at Athens to be brought to him, to be employed about some engine of battery he had a design to make; the other, presuming upon his own science and sufficiency in those affairs, thought fit to do otherwise than directed, and to bring the less, which, according to the rules of art, was really more proper for the use to which it was designed; but Crassus, though he gave ear to his reasons with great patience, would not, however, take them, how sound or convincing soever, for current pay, but caused him to be well whipped for his pains, valuing the interest of discipline much more than that of the work in hand.

Section 17

Chapter XVII. OF FEAR

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Fear5 excerptsCourage3 excerptsDeath1 excerptDespair1 excerptHuman Nature1 excerpt

Fear Worse Than Reality

Such as have been well rubbed in some skirmish, may yet, all wounded and bloody as they are, be brought on again the next day to charge; but such as have once conceived a good sound fear of the enemy, will never be made so much as to look him in the face. Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk. And the many people who, impatient of the perpetual alarms of fear, have hanged or drowned themselves, or dashed themselves to pieces, give us sufficiently to understand that fear is more importunate and insupportable than death itself.

Section 18

Chapter XVIII. THAT MEN ARE NOT TO JUDGE OF OUR HAPPINESS TILL AFTER DEATH

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Death3 excerptsJudgment2 excerptsWisdom2 excerptsAmbition1 excerptCharacter1 excerpt

Death as Final Judge

Wherefore, at this last, all the other actions of our life ought to be tried and sifted: ‘tis the master-day, ‘tis the day that is judge of all the rest, “‘tis the day,” says one of the ancients, “that must be judge of all my foregoing years.” To death do I refer the assay of the fruit of all my studies: we shall then see whether my discourses came only from my mouth or from my heart.

Section 20

Chapter XX. OF THE FORCE OF IMAGINATION

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Imagination6 excerptsFree Will3 excerptsBody And Mind2 excerptsInvoluntary Actions2 excerptsReason2 excerpts

Confession as Cure

I know, by experience, in the case of a particular friend of mine, one for whom I can be as responsible as for myself, and a man that cannot possibly fall under any manner of suspicion of insufficiency, and as little of being enchanted, who having heard a companion of his make a relation of an unusual frigidity that surprised him at a very unseasonable time; being afterwards himself engaged upon the same account, the horror of the former story on a sudden so strangely possessed his imagination, that he ran the same fortune the other had done; and from that time forward, the scurvy remembrance of his disaster running in his mind and tyrannising over him, he was subject to relapse into the same misfortune. He found some remedy, however, for this fancy in another fancy, by himself frankly confessing and declaring beforehand to the party with whom he was to have to do, this subjection of his, by which means, the agitation of his soul was, in some sort, appeased; and knowing that, now, some such misbehaviour was expected from him, the restraint upon his faculties grew less. And afterwards, at such times as he was in no such apprehension, when setting about the act (his thoughts being then disengaged and free, and his body in its true and natural estate) he was at leisure to cause the part to be handled and communicated to the knowledge of the other party, he was totally freed from that vexatious infirmity.

Section 21

Chapter XXI. THAT THE PROFIT OF ONE MAN IS THE DAMAGE OF ANOTHER

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Profit2 excerptsEthics1 excerptHuman Nature1 excerptInterdependence1 excerptSelf-Interest1 excerpt

Profiting from Misfortune

The merchant only thrives by the debauchery of youth, the husband man by the dearness of grain, the architect by the ruin of buildings, lawyers and officers of justice by the suits and contentions of men: nay, even the honour and office of divines are derived from our death and vices. A physician takes no pleasure in the health even of his friends, says the ancient Greek comic writer, nor a soldier in the peace of his country, and so of the rest.

Section 22

Chapter XXII. OF CUSTOM, AND THAT WE SHOULD NOT EASILY CHANGE A LAW RECEIVED

19 excerpts

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Custom12 excerptsReason4 excerptsConscience2 excerptsEducation2 excerptsPerception2 excerpts

Conscience Born of Custom

The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom; every one, having an inward veneration for the opinions and manners approved and received amongst his own people, cannot, without very great reluctance, depart from them, nor apply himself to them without applause.

Section 23

Chapter XXIII. VARIOUS EVENTS FROM THE SAME COUNSEL

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Courage2 excerptsTrust2 excerptsAmbition1 excerptArt1 excerptChance1 excerpt

Courage in the Closet

Courage, the reputation and glory of which men seek with so greedy an appetite, presents itself, when need requires, as magnificently in cuerpo, as in full armour; in a closet, as in a camp; with arms pendant, as with arms raised. This over-circumspect and wary prudence is a mortal enemy to all high and generous exploits.

Section 24

Chapter XXIV. OF PEDANTRY

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Education9 excerptsKnowledge7 excerptsSelf-Reliance5 excerptsWisdom5 excerptsAuthentic Learning2 excerpts

Knowledge vs Virtue

In plain truth, the cares and expense our parents are at in our education, point at nothing, but to furnish our heads with knowledge; but not a word of judgment and virtue. Cry out, of one that passes by, to the people: “O, what a learned man!” and of another, “O, what a good man!” they will not fail to turn their eyes, and address their respect to the former. There should then be a third crier, “O, the blockheads!” Men are apt presently to inquire, does such a one understand Greek or Latin? Is he a poet? or does he write in prose? But whether he be grown better or more discreet, which are qualities of principal concern, these are never thought of.

Section 25

Chapter XXV. OF THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN

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Education19 excerptsPhilosophy6 excerptsLearning5 excerptsPerspective4 excerptsRhetoric4 excerpts

Student as Test Subject

‘Tis the custom of pedagogues to be eternally thundering in their pupil's ears, as they were pouring into a funnel, whilst the business of the pupil is only to repeat what the others have said: now I would have a tutor to correct this error, and, that at the very first, he should according to the capacity he has to deal with, put it to the test, permitting his pupil himself to taste things, and of himself to discern and choose them, sometimes opening the way to him, and sometimes leaving him to open it for himself; that is, I would not have him alone to invent and speak, but that he should also hear his pupil speak in turn.

Section 26

Chapter XXVI. THAT IT IS FOLLY TO MEASURE TRUTH AND ERROR BY OUR OWN CAPACITY

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Humility3 excerptsSkepticism3 excerptsEpistemology2 excerptsBelief1 excerptCognitive Bias1 excerpt

Confession of Arrogance

I was myself once one of those; and if I heard talk of dead folks walking, of prophecies, enchantments, witchcrafts, or any other story I had no mind to believe: “Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, Nocturnos lemures, portentaque Thessala,” [“Dreams, magic terrors, marvels, sorceries, Thessalian prodigies.” --Horace. Ep. ii. 3, 208.] I presently pitied the poor people that were abused by these follies. Whereas I now find, that I myself was to be pitied as much, at least, as they; not that experience has taught me anything to alter my former opinions, though my curiosity has endeavoured that way; but reason has instructed me, that thus resolutely to condemn anything for false and impossible, is arrogantly and impiously to circumscribe and limit the will of God, and the power of our mother nature, within the bounds of my own capacity, than which no folly can be greater.

Section 27

Chapter XXVII. OF FRIENDSHIP

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Friendship12 excerptsLove4 excerptsComparison2 excerptsLoss2 excerptsArt1 excerpt

Souls Without Seams

For the rest, what we commonly call friends and friendships, are nothing but acquaintance and familiarities, either occasionally contracted, or upon some design, by means of which there happens some little intercourse betwixt our souls. But in the friendship I speak of, they mix and work themselves into one piece, with so universal a mixture, that there is no more sign of the seam by which they were first conjoined. If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I. There is, beyond all that I am able to say, I know not what inexplicable and fated power that brought on this union.

Section 28

Chapter XXVIII. NINE AND TWENTY SONNETS OF ESTIENNE DE LA BOITIE

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Section 30

Chapter XXX. OF CANNIBALS

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Cultural Relativism3 excerptsCourage2 excerptsValour2 excerptsBarbarity1 excerptCannibalism1 excerpt

Provincial Perfection

I find that there is nothing barbarous and savage in this nation, by anything that I can gather, excepting, that every one gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country. As, indeed, we have no other level of truth and reason than the example and idea of the opinions and customs of the place wherein we live: there is always the perfect religion, there the perfect government, there the most exact and accomplished usage of all things.

Section 32

Chapter XXXII. THAT WE ARE TO AVOID PLEASURES, EVEN AT THE EXPENSE OF LIFE

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Courage1 excerptDeath1 excerptDecision1 excerpt

Untie Before You Break

“I am of opinion,” says he, “either that thou leave that life of thine, or life itself; I would, indeed, advise thee to the gentle way, and to untie, rather than to break, the knot thou hast indiscreetly knit, provided, that if it be not otherwise to be untied, thou resolutely break it. There is no man so great a coward, that had not rather once fall than to be always falling.”

Section 33

Chapter XXXIII. THAT FORTUNE IS OFTENTIMES OBSERVED TO ACT BY THE RULE OF REASON

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Art1 excerptChance1 excerptFortune1 excerpt

The Perfect Accidental Sponge

Did she not also excel the painter Protogenes in his art? who having finished the picture of a dog quite tired and out of breath, in all the other parts excellently well to his own liking, but not being able to express, as he would, the slaver and foam that should come out of its mouth, vexed and angry at his work, he took his sponge, which by cleaning his pencils had imbibed several sorts of colours, and threw it in a rage against the picture, with an intent utterly to deface it; when fortune guiding the sponge to hit just upon the mouth of the dog, it there performed what all his art was not able to do.

Section 34

Chapter XXXIV. OF ONE DEFECT IN OUR GOVERNMENT

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Misfortune1 excerptNeglect Of Merit1 excerptPatronage1 excerptShame1 excerptSociety1 excerpt

Shame of Unmet Want

I have heard, to the great shame of the age we live in, that in our very sight two most excellent men for learning died so poor that they had scarce bread to put in their mouths: Lilius Gregorius Giraldus in Italy and Sebastianus Castalio in Germany: and I believe there are a thousand men would have invited them into their families, with very advantageous conditions, or have relieved them where they were, had they known their wants. The world is not so generally corrupted, but that I know a man that would heartily wish the estate his ancestors have left him might be employed, so long as it shall please fortune to give him leave to enjoy it, to secure rare and remarkable persons of any kind, whom misfortune sometimes persecutes to the last degree, from the dangers of necessity; and at least place them in such a condition that they must be very hard to please, if they are not contented.

Section 36

Chapter XXXVI. OF CATO THE YOUNGER

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Judgment4 excerptsVirtue3 excerptsArt2 excerptsInspiration2 excerptsInterpretation2 excerpts

Poetry's Lightning Flash

There is, indeed, a certain low and moderate sort of poetry, that a man may well enough judge by certain rules of art; but the true, supreme, and divine poesy is above all rules and reason. And whoever discerns the beauty of it with the most assured and most steady sight, sees no more than the quick reflection of a flash of lightning: it does not exercise, but ravishes and overwhelms our judgment.

Section 37

Chapter XXXVII. THAT WE LAUGH AND CRY FOR THE SAME THING

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Human Nature2 excerptsChangeability1 excerptComplexity Of Emotions1 excerptEmotion1 excerptEmotions1 excerpt

Victory's Weeping Face

We have resolutely pursued the revenge of an injury received, and been sensible of a singular contentment for the victory; but we shall weep notwithstanding. ‘Tis not for the victory, though, that we shall weep: there is nothing altered in that but the soul looks upon things with another eye and represents them to itself with another kind of face; for everything has many faces and several aspects.

Section 38

Chapter XXXVIII. OF SOLITUDE

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Solitude7 excerptsAmbition3 excerptsMind3 excerptsRetirement3 excerptsSelf-Sufficiency3 excerpts

Inescapable Inner Court

Our disease lies in the mind, which cannot escape from itself; “In culpa est animus, qui se non effugit unquam,” --Horace, Ep., i. 14, 13. and therefore is to be called home and confined within itself: that is the true solitude, and that may be enjoyed even in populous cities and the courts of kings, though more commodiously apart.

Section 39

Chapter XXXIX. A CONSIDERATION UPON CICERO

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Action Vs Speech1 excerptCommunication1 excerptEloquence1 excerptFlattery1 excerptGovernance1 excerpt

Misplaced Commendations

‘Tis a kind of mockery and offence to extol a man for qualities misbecoming his condition, though otherwise commendable in themselves, but such as ought not, however, to be his chief talent; as if a man should commend a king for being a good painter, a good architect, a good marksman, or a good runner at the ring: commendations that add no honour, unless mentioned altogether and in the train of those that are properly applicable to him, namely, justice and the science of governing and conducting his people both in peace and war. At this rate, agriculture was an honour to Cyrus, and eloquence and the knowledge of letters to Charlemagne.

Section 41

Chapter XLI. NOT TO COMMUNICATE A MAN'S HONOUR

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Vanity2 excerptsGlory1 excerptLeadership1 excerptObedience1 excerptPhilosophy1 excerpt

Fame's Hollow Echo

Of all the follies of the world, that which is most universally received is the solicitude of reputation and glory; which we are fond of to that degree as to abandon riches, peace, life, and health, which are effectual and substantial goods, to pursue this vain phantom and empty word, that has neither body nor hold to be taken of it: La fama, ch'invaghisce a un dolce suono Gli superbi mortali, et par si bella, E un eco, un sogno, anzi d'un sogno un'ombra, Ch'ad ogni vento si dilegua a sgombra.” [“Fame, which with alluring sound charms proud mortals, and appears so fair, is but an echo, a dream, nay, the shadow of a dream, which at every breath vanishes and dissolves.”

Section 42

Chapter XLII. OF THE INEQUALITY AMOUNGST US

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Appearance Vs Reality3 excerptsHappiness3 excerptsPower3 excerptsFortune2 excerptsFriendship2 excerpts

Man vs Man Gap

Plutarch says somewhere that he does not find so great a difference betwixt beast and beast as he does betwixt man and man; which he says in reference to the internal qualities and perfections of the soul. And, in truth, I find so vast a distance betwixt Epaminondas, according to my judgment of him, and some that I know, who are yet men of good sense, that I could willingly enhance upon Plutarch, and say that there is more difference betwixt such and such a man than there is betwixt such a man and such a beast: [“Ah! how much may one man surpass another!” --Terence, Eunuchus, ii. 2.] and that there are as many and innumerable degrees of mind as there are cubits betwixt this and heaven.

Section 43

Chapter XLIII. OF SUMPTUARY LAWS

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Change1 excerptCustom1 excerptDesire1 excerptLaw1 excerptSocial Status1 excerpt

Forbidden Things Shine

The true way would be to beget in men a contempt of silks and gold, as vain, frivolous, and useless; whereas we augment to them the honours, and enhance the value of such things, which, sure, is a very improper way to create a disgust. For to enact that none but princes shall eat turbot, shall wear velvet or gold lace, and interdict these things to the people, what is it but to bring them into a greater esteem, and to set every one more agog to eat and wear them?

Section 44

Chapter XLIV. OF SLEEP

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Courage1 excerptEquanimity1 excerptModeration1 excerptReason1 excerptTranscendence1 excerpt

Steady Path, Flexible Pace

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 the reins to human passions as to let him deviate from the right path, he may, notwithstanding, without prejudice to his duty, leave it to them to hasten or to slacken his speed, and not fix himself like a motionless and insensible Colossus.

Section 45

Chapter XLV. OF THE BATTLE OF DREUX

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Section 46

Chapter XLVI. OF NAMES

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Contentment1 excerptCritique Of Vanity1 excerptHope1 excerptHuman Nature1 excerptMorality1 excerpt

Hope's Valiant Usurpation

O what a valiant faculty is hope, that in a mortal subject, and in a moment, makes nothing of usurping infinity, immensity, eternity, and of supplying its master's indigence, at its pleasure, with all things he can imagine or desire! Nature has given us this passion for a pretty toy to play withal.

Section 48

Chapter XLVIII. OF WAR HORSES, OR DESTRIERS

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Section 49

Chapter XLIX. OF ANCIENT CUSTOMS

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Custom3 excerptsHuman Nature2 excerptsJudgment2 excerptsVanity2 excerptsChange1 excerpt

Whim-Wham Vanity Cycle

When they wore the busk of their doublets up as high as their breasts, they stiffly maintained that they were in their proper place; some years after it was slipped down betwixt their thighs, and then they could laugh at the former fashion as uneasy and intolerable. The fashion now in use makes them absolutely condemn the other two with so great resolution and so universal consent, that a man would think there was a certain kind of madness crept in amongst them, that infatuates their understandings to this strange degree. Now, seeing that our change of fashions is so prompt and sudden, that the inventions of all the tailors in the world cannot furnish out new whim-whams enow to feed our vanity withal, there will often be a necessity that the despised forms must again come in vogue, these immediately after fall into the same contempt; and that the same judgment must, in the space of fifteen or twenty years, take up half-a-dozen not only divers but contrary opinions, with an incredible lightness and inconstancy; there is not any of us so discreet, who suffers not himself to be gulled with this contradiction, and both in external and internal sight to be insensibly blinded.

Section 50

Chapter L. OF DEMOCRITUS AND HERACLITUS

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Contempt2 excerptsPerception2 excerptsSubjectivity2 excerptsFolly1 excerptFortune1 excerpt

Soul Rewrites Reality

Health, conscience, authority, knowledge, riches, beauty, and their contraries, all strip themselves at their entering into us, and receive a new robe, and of another fashion, from the soul; and of what colour, brown, bright, green, dark, and of what quality, sharp, sweet, deep, or superficial, as best pleases each of them, for they are not agreed upon any common standard of forms, rules, or proceedings; every one is a queen in her own dominions. Let us, therefore, no more excuse ourselves upon the external qualities of things; it belongs to us to give ourselves an account of them.

Section 51

Chapter LI. OF THE VANITY OF WORDS

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Deception1 excerptLanguage1 excerptPerception1 excerptReality1 excerptRhetoric1 excerpt

Jargon's Empty Palace

I do not here speak of effects, I speak of words only. I do not know whether it may have the same operation upon other men that it has upon me, but when I hear our architects thunder out their bombast words of pilasters, architraves, and cornices, of the Corinthian and Doric orders, and suchlike jargon, my imagination is presently possessed with the palace of Apollidon; when, after all, I find them but the paltry pieces of my own kitchen door. To hear men talk of metonomies, metaphors, and allegories, and other grammar words, would not one think they signified some rare and exotic form of speaking?

Section 52

Chapter LII. OF THE PARSIMONY OF THE ANCIENTS

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Section 55

Chapter LV. OF SMELLS

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Section 56

Chapter LVI. OF PRAYERS

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Prayer7 excerptsHypocrisy5 excerptsDivine Justice3 excerptsMorality2 excerptsChristian Practice1 excerpt

Prayer as Hypocrisy

We pray only by custom and for fashion's sake; or rather, we read or pronounce our prayers aloud, which is no better than an hypocritical show of devotion; and I am scandalised to see a man cross himself thrice at the Benedicite, and as often at Grace (and the more, because it is a sign I have in great veneration and continual use, even when I yawn), and to dedicate all the other hours of the day to acts of malice, avarice, and injustice. One hour to God, the rest to the devil, as if by composition and compensation.

Section 57

Chapter LVII. OF AGE

4 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Age2 excerptsAging1 excerptDevelopment1 excerptFortune1 excerptLife1 excerpt

Life's Subjective Span

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 common opinion: “what,” said the younger Cato to those who would stay his hand from killing himself, “am I now of an age to be reproached that I go out of the world too soon?” And yet he was but eight-and-forty years old. He thought that to be a mature and advanced age, considering how few arrive unto it.