Montaigne’s Essays
by Michel de Montaigne
1. Synopsis of Essays
The Essays is divided into three volumes, containing 107 chapters, including
That Men by Various Ways Arrive at the Same End, Of Sadness or Sorrow, That Our
Affections Carry Themselves Beyond Us, Of Idleness, Of Liars, Of Quick or Slow
Speech, Of Prognostications, Of Constancy, Of Custom; We Should Not Easily
Change a Law Received, Of Pedantry, Of the Education of Children, Of Friendship,
Of Smells, Of Presumption, Observation on a War According to Julius Caesar, Of
Three Good Women and etc. These essays cover almost every aspects in one’s life.
2. Relevant literature reviews
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), the author of Montaigne’s Essays, was born
in Aquitaine region of France. He lived in the later part of the Renaissance and
become one of the most influential philosophers and the most important
representatives of French humanism in the world. His work greatly influenced the
European literature in thoughts and writing styles. Shakespeare, Bacon, Nietzsche and
many other writers and ideologists were influenced by his books. The Enlightenment
in 18th century was also affected by his thoughts, inheriting his spirit of advocating
rationality and experience.
Essays is a collection of short pieces which show Montaigne’s thoughts about
details in life, behaviors, emotions, beliefs and many other aspects. It was called one
of the three modern European classics together with Essays of Francis Bacon and
Pensées of Blaise Pascal. It was firstly published as three volumes from 1580 to 1588.
Since then his works never stopped being translated and spread around the world.
Essays had taken an important place in the history of European and even world-wide
literature.
3. My own discussions
Montaigne’s words are are not so complicated, some are even very interesting.
His writing style is fairly informal and lively. There are numerous quotes and
examples in his articles, which are from ancient Greek and Roman Mythology, words
and phrases of ancient philosophers, ideologists and poets. The articles covered many
aspects in our life. Though he did not clearly formulate the reasons and logic, we can
still easily learn that he is very knowledgeable and his thinking is very comprehensive by reading his book.
For instance, in That Men by Various Ways Arrive at the Same End, the opening
of the Essays, Montaigne took the prince of Wales, Prince of Epirus, The Emperor
Conrad III, Dionysius the elder, Alexander and some other persons as examples. He represented stories of these men to demonstrate that two completely different attitudes can reach the same result. Though this essay is filled with various names with complicated titles, its examples are easy to understand. Therefore, the names just did not became the obstacles in the process of reading. Similarly, in other articles, he lists numbers of examples to prove his opinions more comprehensively. Thus it can be seen that he is indeed a brilliant man of wide knowledge.
In addition to instances from what he had learned, he also often take himself as examples in his articles. In the foreword, he had told that he himself is the material of the book. That is, this book represented his life and thoughts. He talked about the books he had read, his opinions about reading, his philosophy of life; described his personality, habits and his study. He based on himself and then extended to the whole era, involving the issue of humanity and generalities. He believed that each person has all the states that all human beings would run into. He was in deep belief that talking about himself, incorporating the cognition of surrounding, the absorption of cultures and self-enjoyment, could help build up the general spiritual laws. He analyze ancient philosophers’ views and his own opinions by making comments on himself.
Montaigne lived in the later part of the Renaissance, a tumultuous historical period of religion revolution. While the outside world was in a complete shambles and enveloped by the dark clouds, Montaigne determinedly chose to go into retirement to enjoy a peaceful life. In 1572, Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and reflection. The situation did not disturb him but created the opportunities for him to pursue the freedom and peace of mind.
In Of Idleness, a very short essay, he talked about his attitude to leisure. He wrote that “even so it is with minds, which if not applied to some certain study that may fix and restrain them, run into a thousand extravagances, eternally roving here and there in the vague expanse of the imagination”. He also quoted Lucan’s “Leisure ever creates varied thought” to show that how dreadful it will be if one’s thinking stopped. Montaigne went to retirement in that troubled time to look for peace and leisure. However, he did not mean to idle away his time but to refrain himself from the overloading situation to read, think and write. We always desire a moment’s rest when we are involved with various complicated things, but many of us went into unlimited fancy and imaginations. Then we feel more vacuous after the rest and find that we get nothing gained. Of course people should not work endlessly, but we ought to realize what kind of “leisure” or “idleness” we really need. Otherwise, what certainly defeats us will be the “chimaeras and fantastic monsters” in our mind but not the busy work.
Besides his thinking about life, he is also famous for his thoughts on learning and education. His education view is intensively reflected in the following essays: Of the Education of Children, Of Pedantry，Of books and so on. Montaigne attached great importance to children’s education. He emphasized the moral education, argued that sometimes we can directly tell children some correct values. And it is certified that excellent judgment and viability and also good virtue are more important than the
intellectual education. His view about the comprehensive education is also popular in today’s education. Therefore, we can see that Montaigne indeed had enough foresight. His education view is still applicable in this time.
Reading his books can bring peace to our mind. Reading his words and sentences make us feel that he is just an old friend, who is sitting opposite to us, talking of everything in our life. Learning about his attitude to life lead us to a new spiritual world. Montaigne is a wise man and a cool observer. He had an clear insight into human nature and exposed many human being’s common emotions. According to his abundant experience and profound knowledge, Montaigne recorded the development of his intelligence and spirit. His unique understandings became the precious spiritual wealth for the later generations.
4. References
/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne
/wiki/Essays_(Montaigne)
.cn/soft/Nonfiction/Obooks/4017.html
Michel de Montaigne. The Essays of Montaigne V2. Translated by Charles Cotton.
1877
蒙田；蒙田随笔；刘一飞译；黑龙江科学技术出版社；2012
闫欣芳；浅析蒙田的教育思想——读《蒙田随笔全集》有感；卷宗；2013
张东华；蒙田教育思想简评；漳州师范学院学报；2001