MONTAIGNE.*

THE Essays in this little volume are well selected, and the prefatory notice of Montaigne is just what it ought to be, containing a short life of the author, and pointing out the peculiarities of his style and matter. The first Essay speaks for itself, and serves as a good introduction. That on the education of children is peculiarly appropriate for these days, when so much is being talked about the subject and so little is done for the middle class, who of all the English people are the most deficient in it. Montaigne, in rather an amusing way, complains of the smattering of his own education, and makes himself a warning for all engaged in the instruction of youth. It may be said that he was the very worst proof to give of the evil effects of smattering; for his mind was of that strong quality that would remain strong under any training, although he may have "seen but the superficies of true learning whereof he retained but a general and shape- less form ; a smack of everything in general, but nothing to the purpose in particular." How exactly this describes the culture of those who have learned a little Latin, a little French, German, mathematics, Shakespeare, &c., as is now the case with the majority of girls attending the "High schools"!

This edition is that of Florio's translation, which gives by far the best idea of Montaigne's style, and is all the more interesting to Englishmen, since Shakespeare "boiled down" much of it for his own purpose. The late Bishop Wilberforce hailed the appearance of Trench "On the Parables," as a fitting book for his clergy to boil down, and we would recommend Montaigne for the same object, only let them beware how they do it, lest, In his own words, they should "stuff any one of their dis- courses with those rich spoils, and manifestly cause the sottish, nese of others to appear." He, more than any author, followed the injunction, "Know thyself," and therefore knew man. In this, the clergy are more at fault than other profes- sions. Of the three sexes—men, women, and parsons— the last has the least power of understanding the other two; partly from their training, and partly because so many men and women in approaching them, "make broad their phylacteries," and thus throw dust in their eyes. An excellent preacher and a devout man said that he had not time to read books, but that he never neglected an opportunity of reading his fellow-creatures. A long-headed Scotchinan remarked, "I doubt whether he has read one man or one woman." Man is very difficult to read ; it is a gift which few possess, and which many never acquire ; but, in reading Montaigne, you may hope to acquire it gradually, for there you read a man who lets you see himself.

In criticising an edition or a biography of a celebrated

author, one should ask : "Will it allure or drive its readers to the works of the author himself F" Many a man has been eager to make the acquaintance of Montaigne from reading St. John's Biography, or books of that stamp, where the unction of sympathy is poured by the writer, through his work, on to the reader. And what an acquaintance, or, rather, what a friend to make ! How, when we are smoking our pipe by the fire-side, or taking a stroll on a summer's evening, he seems to be with us, talking to us, observing us ; and how we seem to be ready to consult him more than any other friend made in the same way, and to watch his looks for approval when we have written a difficult letter or finished an important conver- sation! By his pleasant companionship we have known men, who were silent, become "excellent company," pleasantly and

suggestively garrulous. We do not expect this quality to be found in the short prefatory notice of this book, but the Essays selected are adapted to that object.

Lord Brougham is said to have spoiled his style by copying Cicero, and one would have expected that Montaigne's style would have suffered from his Latinity ; but probably his use of Latin was chiefly confined to conversation. We have seen the style of men of high classical training, especially of Cambridge men, much wanting in idiomatic English. French, in Mon- taigne's time, was peculiarly adapted to his mind, whereas now it might be too perfect, or perhaps too rigid ; for it has under- gone a great change, from being the least endowed of the lan- guages of Europe, to having become, in very important respects, the best endowed, as it has been out and polished so as to render it the language of epigram, irony, and clear definition. In no

Essays of Montaigne. "Eminent Writers' Series. Solectea, with a Pre- fatory Note, by Percival Chubb, Lontlon: Walter Scott. other language could Renan have expressed that sweet and delicate irony which, otherwise expressed, vanishes like a fragrant odour from the smallest breath of wind. It is un- fortunate that so many French writers abuse this by polishing

their sentences to such a degree that they polish away the thought they are meant to express. An amusing feature of Montaigne's Essays is that he seems to have sometimes written an Essay and then to have called it by the first heading that came into his mind, thus reminding us of Sydney Smith's recommendation : "Write your sermon, and then put the text at the head; and if you do not easily find one to suit, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers in Meso- potamia,' will do as well as any other."

There is a very serious subject on which Mr. Chubb in the preface has spoken kindly and wisely,—the scepticism of Mon- taigne, which "lies in his recognition of the irreconcilable differences in human nature, its unaccountable caprices, its variety of custom and conduct, its waverings and variable convictions. But there is always a point at which his scepti- cism halts ; he never doubts the reality of virtue." There was in his mind a struggle at times between superstition and common-sense, the former sucked in with his mother's milk, the latter the product of his own vigorous and clear-seeing mind. We see the same in our own Bacon and in others of that time; and even in our own days, how few men, though able to distinguish between the gold and dross of their religion, are unable to free themselves completely from the latter. A friend of ours, an Irishman of a devout and broad mind, for some years in the Array, and then for several more years Governor of a large prison, told us that he always consulted St. Joseph before taking . a new house, as St. Joseph had been a carpenter and understood those matters, and he had never failed to recommend a perfect one. The opinions of distinguished men upon Montaigne are sin-

gularly various. Malebranche says "Le plaisir qu'on eprouve i le lire, natt principalement de la concupiscence." Arnaud says : "Montaigne est plain d'un si grand nombre

d'infamies honteuses et de maximes 6picuriennes qu'il est 6trange qu'on l'ait souffert si longtems dans les mains de tout le monde." Pascal acknowledged that he had with in- vincible firmness combated and completely routed impiety ; but he says of him : "Ii met toutes °hoses dons not doute universel et si genoral que ce doute s'emporte soi-mOme et que l'homme doute meme s'il doute." His " Entretien avec M. de Saci sur Epictete et Montaigne" is very important on this subject. The following passage in his " Pensees " seems to aim at Montaigne, and is so powerfully expressed that it is said to have taken away the breath of, and almost rendered insensible, a well known philosopher :—

"Je ne sais qui m's, mis an monde, ni co que c'est qua is monde, no quo moi-mime. 3-e 811lE1 dans uno ignorance do toutes choses. Jo no sais ce quo c'est que mon corps, que mes sons, quo mon &me et cette partio mime de moi qui pause co que je dis, qui fait re- flexion sur tout at sur elle-mime, at no se connalt non plus que le reste. Jo vois ces effroyables espaces de l'univers qui m'enfor- ment, et je me trouve attach6 a un coin de cette vaste 6tendue, sans que 3e sacks pourquoi je suis plutit piaci an ce lieu qu'on un entre, ni pourqubi ce peu de toms qui m'est fount k vivre in'est assigni 1 ce point plait qu'L un antra de touts l'eternits qui m'a pric6d6 at de touts cello dui me suit. Je no voi6 qua des inflnit6s de toutes parts, qui m'enferment comma un atom°, at comme une ombre qui ne dure qu'un instant sans retour. Tout ce que is connais est que is dois bientit mourir ; mais en que j'ignore is plus est oette mort mime quo jo ne saunas eviter."

Cardinal du Perron calls the Essays "le br6viaire des honnetes hommes," the Jansenists held them in abomination, Lalande placed Montaigne among the atheists, l'Abb6 de Labouderie con- sidered him as one of the greatest apologists of religion ; so that it has been justly remarked : "Ii semble se ddrober sans cease It ce jugement definitif que la post6rite porte toujours, tot on tard, sus les hommes que out laisse une trace eclatante de leur passage dons le monde." The Catholic Church, which says that "she makes no compromise," certainly made an exception in his case, and accepted charitably his assertion that he was a devout son of the Church. He and Descartes acted much in the same way towards the Church; neither wished to for-

sake their nursing mother, and neither wished to be burned. The result of their conduct has been of immense advantage

to the world, as the one has revealed to it man, the other Goa, the mind, and the laws of Nature.

We recommend those who read French to use the edition of Mathew]. and Jouaust, in 4 vols. Svo, with excellent notes and

a complete glossary, printed on perfect paper, and with beautiful type. It is founded on the edition of 1588, of which St. Beuve says that " elle produit mieux une impression d'ensemble." On the pages of this edition Montaigne had written many observations and notes, one of which was : " Is life worth living ? ' said Thales," &c., on which he no doubt meant to write an essay, which would have been greedily read by those of our days who are busily asking the question.