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44 - Selected Essays of Michel de Montaigne by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne · Selected Essays of Michel de Montaigne

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Speaker 1: Section forty four of selected essays of Michel de Montaigne
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Speaker 1: by Michelichem de Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton. This librovox
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Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami of
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Speaker 1: Managing the Will, Part one. Few things in comparison of
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Speaker 1: what commonly affect other men move, or to say better,
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Speaker 1: possess me for tis but reason they should concern a
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Speaker 1: man provided they do not possess him. I am very solicitous,
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Speaker 1: both by study and argument, to enlarge this privilege of insensibility,
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Speaker 1: which is in me naturally raised to a pretty degree,
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Speaker 1: so that consequently I espouse and am very much moved
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Speaker 1: with very few things. I have a clear sight enough,
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Speaker 1: but I fix it upon very few objects. I have
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Speaker 1: a sense delicate and tender enough, but an apprehension and
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Speaker 1: application hard and negligent. I am very unwilling to engage
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Speaker 1: myself as much as in me lies. I employ myself
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Speaker 1: wholly on myself, and even in that subject, should rather
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Speaker 1: choose to curb and restrain my affection from plunging itself
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Speaker 1: over head and ears into it. It being a subject
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Speaker 1: that I possess at the mercy of others. And over
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Speaker 1: which fortune has more right than I, so that, even
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Speaker 1: as to health, which I so much value, tis all
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Speaker 1: the more necessary for me not so passionately to covet
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Speaker 1: and heat it, than to find diseases so insupportable. A
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Speaker 1: man ought to moderate himself between the hatred of pain
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Speaker 1: and the love of pleasure, And Plato lets down a
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Speaker 1: middle path of life between the two, but against such
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Speaker 1: affections as carry me away from myself and fix me elsewhere.
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Speaker 1: Against those, I say, I oppose myself with my utmost power.
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Speaker 1: Tis my opinion that a man should lend himself to
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Speaker 1: others and only give himself to himself. Were my will
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Speaker 1: easy to lend itself out and to be swayed, I
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Speaker 1: should not stick there. I am too tender both by
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Speaker 1: nature and use. Fugax rerem sakuraque and otium natus hot
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Speaker 1: and obstinate disputes were in my adversary, would at last
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Speaker 1: have the better The issue that would render my heat
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Speaker 1: and obstinacy disgraceful, would peradventure vex me to the last degree.
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Speaker 1: Should I set myself to it at the rate that
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Speaker 1: others do, my soul would never have the force to
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Speaker 1: bear the emotion and alarms of those who grasp it
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Speaker 1: so much it would immediately be disordered by this inward agitation.
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Speaker 1: If sometimes I have been put upon the management of
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Speaker 1: other men's affairs, I have promised to take them in hand,
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Speaker 1: but not into my lungs and liver, to take them
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Speaker 1: upon me, not to incorporate them, to take pains. Yes,
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Speaker 1: to be impassioned about it, by no means. I have
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Speaker 1: a care of them, But I will not sit upon them.
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Speaker 1: I have enough to do to order and govern the
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Speaker 1: domestic throng of those that I have in my own
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Speaker 1: veins and bowels, without introducing a crowd of other men's affairs.
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Speaker 1: And am sufficiently concerned about my own proper and natural business,
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Speaker 1: without meddling with the concerns of others. Such as know
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Speaker 1: how much they owe to themselves, and how many offices
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Speaker 1: they are bound to of their own, Find that nature
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Speaker 1: has cut them out work enough of their own to
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Speaker 1: keep them from being idle. Thou hast business enough at home.
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Speaker 1: Look to that men let themselves out to hire. Their
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Speaker 1: faculties are not for themselves, but for those to whom
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Speaker 1: they have enslaved themselves. Tis their tenants occupy them not themselves.
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Speaker 1: This common humor pleases not me. We must be thrifty
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Speaker 1: of the liberty of our souls, and never let it out.
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Speaker 1: But upon just occasions, which are very few, if we
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Speaker 1: judge a right, do but observe such as have accustomed
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Speaker 1: themselves to be at every one's call. They do it
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Speaker 1: indifferently upon all, as well little as great occasions, in
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Speaker 1: that which nothing concerns them, as much as in what
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Speaker 1: imports them most. They thrust themselves so indifferently wherever there
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Speaker 1: is work to do an obligation, and are without life
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Speaker 1: when not in tumultuous bustle in the goot eat sunt
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Speaker 1: no go to e khuza. It is not so much
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Speaker 1: that they will go, as it is that they cannot
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Speaker 1: stand still, like a rolling stone that cannot stop till
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Speaker 1: it can go no farther. Occupation with a certain sort
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Speaker 1: of men is a mark of understanding and dignity. Their
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Speaker 1: souls seek repose and agitation, as children do by being
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Speaker 1: rocked in a cradle. They may pronounce themselves as serviceable
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Speaker 1: to their friends as they are troublesome to themselves. No
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Speaker 1: one distributes his money to others, but every one distributes
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Speaker 1: his time and his life. There is nothing of which
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Speaker 1: we are so prodigal as of these two things, of
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Speaker 1: which to be thrifty would be both commendable and useful.
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Speaker 1: I am of a quite contrary humor. I look to
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Speaker 1: myself and commonly covet with no great ardor what I
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Speaker 1: do desire and desire little. And I employ and busy
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Speaker 1: myself at the same rate rarely and temperately. Whatever they
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Speaker 1: take in hand, they do it with their utmost will
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Speaker 1: and vehemence. There are so many dangerous steps that for
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Speaker 1: the more safety we must a little lightly and superficially
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Speaker 1: glide over the world and not rush through it. Pleasure
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Speaker 1: itself is painful. In profundity, you tread on fire, hidden
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Speaker 1: under deceitful ashes horace. The Parliament of Bordeaux chose me
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Speaker 1: mayor of their city at a time when I was
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Speaker 1: at a distance from France, and still more remote from
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Speaker 1: any such thought. I entreated to be excused, but I
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Speaker 1: was told by my friends that I had committed an
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Speaker 1: error in so doing, and the greater because the King
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Speaker 1: had moreover interposed his command in that affair. Tis an
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Speaker 1: office that ought to be looked upon so much more
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Speaker 1: honorable as it has no other salary nor advantage than
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Speaker 1: the bare honor of its execution. It continues two years,
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Speaker 1: but may be extended by a second election, which very
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Speaker 1: rarely happens. It was to me, and had never been
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Speaker 1: so but twice before, some years ago, to Monsieur de Lansac,
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Speaker 1: and lately to Monsieur de Biro, Marshal of France, in
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Speaker 1: whose place I succeeded, and I left mine to Monsieur
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Speaker 1: de Matigno, Marshal of France. Also proud of so noble
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Speaker 1: a fraternity uter quai bonas paces bellique. Minister Fortune would
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Speaker 1: have a hand in my promotion by this particular circumstance,
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Speaker 1: which he put in of her own not altogether vain.
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Speaker 1: For Alexander disdained the ambassadors of Corinth, who came to
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Speaker 1: offer him a burgess ship of their city. But when
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Speaker 1: they proceeded to lay before him that Bacchus and Hercules
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Speaker 1: were also in the register, he graciously accepted the offer.
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Speaker 1: At my arrival, I faithfully and conscientiously represented myself to them,
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Speaker 1: for such as I found myself to be a man
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Speaker 1: without memory, without vigilance, without experience, and without vigor, but
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Speaker 1: withal without hatred, without ambition, without avarice, and without violence,
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Speaker 1: that they might be informed of my qualities and know
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Speaker 1: what they were to expect from my service, and the
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Speaker 1: knowledge they had had of my father, and the honor
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Speaker 1: they had for his memory, having been the only motive
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Speaker 1: to confer this favor upon me, I plainly told them
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Speaker 1: that I should be very sorry anything should make so
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Speaker 1: great an impression upon me, as their affairs and the
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Speaker 1: concerns of their city had made upon him while he
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Speaker 1: held the government to which they had preferred me. I remembered,
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Speaker 1: when a boy to have seen him in his old age,
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Speaker 1: cruelly tormented with these public affairs, neglecting the soft repose
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Speaker 1: of his own house to which the declension of his
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Speaker 1: age had reduced him for several years before the management
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Speaker 1: of his own affairs and his health, and certainly despising
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Speaker 1: his own life, which was in great danger of being
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Speaker 1: lost by being engaged in long and painful journeys on
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Speaker 1: their behalf. Such was he, and this humor of his
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Speaker 1: proceeded from a marvelous good nature. Never was there a
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Speaker 1: more charitable and popular soul. Yet this proceeding, which I
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Speaker 1: commend in others, I do not love to follow myself,
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Speaker 1: and am not without excuse. He had learned that a
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Speaker 1: man must forget himself for his neighbor, and that the
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Speaker 1: particular was of no manner of consideration in comparison with
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Speaker 1: the general. Most of the rules and precepts of the
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Speaker 1: world run this way to drive us out of ourselves
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Speaker 1: into the street for the benefit of public society. They
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Speaker 1: thought to do a great feat to divert and remove
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Speaker 1: us from ourselves, assuming we were but too much fixed
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Speaker 1: there and by a too natural inclination, and have said
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Speaker 1: all they could to that purpose. For tis no new
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Speaker 1: thing for the sages to preach things as they serve,
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Speaker 1: not as they are. Truth has its obstructions, inconveniences, and incompatibilities.
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Speaker 1: With us. We must often deceive that we may not
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Speaker 1: deceive ourselves, and shut our eyes and our understandings to
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Speaker 1: redress and amend them for the ignorant judge, And therefore
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Speaker 1: are oft to be deceived, lest they should err. When
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Speaker 1: they order us to love three, four or fifty degrees
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Speaker 1: of things above ourselves. They do like archers who to
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Speaker 1: hit the white take their aim a great deal higher
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Speaker 1: than the butt. To make a crooked stick straight we
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Speaker 1: bend it the contrary way. I believe that in the
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Speaker 1: Temple of Pallace, as we see in all other religions,
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Speaker 1: there were apparent mysteries to be exposed to the people,
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Speaker 1: and others more secret and high, that were only to
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Speaker 1: be shown to such as were professed. Tis likely that
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Speaker 1: in these the true point of friendship that everyone owes
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Speaker 1: to himself is to be found. Not a false friendship
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Speaker 1: that makes us embrace glory, knowledge, riches, and the like
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Speaker 1: with a principle and a moderate affection as members of
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Speaker 1: our being, nor an indiscreet and effeminate friendship, wherein it happens,
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Speaker 1: as with ivy, that it decays and ruins the walls
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Speaker 1: it embraces, but as sound and regular friendship, equally useful
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Speaker 1: and pleasant. He who knows the duties of this friendship
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Speaker 1: and practices them is truly of the cabinet counsel of
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Speaker 1: the muses, and has attained to the height of human
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Speaker 1: wisdom and our happiness. Such an one, exactly knowing what
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Speaker 1: he owes to himself, will on his part, find that
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Speaker 1: he ought to apply to himself the use of the
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Speaker 1: world and of other men, and to do this to
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Speaker 1: contribute to public society, the duties and offices appertaining to him.
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Speaker 1: He who does not, in some sort live for others,
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Speaker 1: does not live much for himself. He who is his
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Speaker 1: own friend is a friend to everybody else. The principal
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Speaker 1: charge we have is to every one his own conduct,
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Speaker 1: and tis for this only that we are here. As
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Speaker 1: he who should forget to live a virtuous and holy life,
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Speaker 1: and should think he acquitted himself of his duty in
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Speaker 1: instructing and training others up to it, would be a fool.
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Speaker 1: Even so, he who abandons his own particular, healthful and
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Speaker 1: pleasant living to serve others therewith takes, in my opinion,
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Speaker 1: a wrong and unnatural course. I would not that men
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Speaker 1: should refuse in the employments they take upon them their
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Speaker 1: attention pains, eloquence, sweat, and blood. If need, be not
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Speaker 1: afraid to die for beloved friends and for his country.
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Speaker 1: But tis only borrowed and accidentally his mind being always
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Speaker 1: in repose and in health, not without action, but without vexation,
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Speaker 1: without passion. To be simply acting costs him so little
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Speaker 1: that he acts even sleeping. But it must be set
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Speaker 1: ongoing with discretion, for the body receives the offices imposed
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Speaker 1: upon it just according to what they are. The mind
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Speaker 1: often extends and makes the heavier at his own expense,
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Speaker 1: giving them what measure it pleases. Men perform like things
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Speaker 1: with several sorts of endeavor and different contention of will.
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Speaker 1: The one does well enough without the other. For how
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Speaker 1: many people hazard themselves every day in war without any
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Speaker 1: concern which way it goes, and thrust themselves into the
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Speaker 1: dangers of battles, the loss of which will not break
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Speaker 1: their next night's sleep. And such a man may be
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Speaker 1: at home out of the danger which he dared not
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Speaker 1: have looked upon. Who is more passionately concerned for the
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Speaker 1: issue of this war, and whose soul is more anxious
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Speaker 1: about events than the soldier who therein stakes his blood
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Speaker 1: in his life. I could have engaged myself in public
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Speaker 1: employments without quitting my own matters and nail's breadth, and
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Speaker 1: have given myself to others without abandoning myself. This sharpness
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Speaker 1: and violence of desires more hinder than they advance the
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Speaker 1: execution of what they undertake, fill us with impatience against
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Speaker 1: slow or contrary events, and with heat and suspicion against
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Speaker 1: those with whom we have to do. We never carry
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Speaker 1: on that thing well by which we are prepossessed and led.
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Speaker 1: Passionate heat carries on things ill. He who therein employs
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Speaker 1: only his judgment and address, proceeds more cheerfully. He counterfeits,
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Speaker 1: he gives way, he defers quite at his ease, according
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Speaker 1: to the necessities of occasions. He fails in his attempt
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Speaker 1: without trouble and affliction, Ready and entire for a new enterprise,
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Speaker 1: he always marches with the bridle in his hand. In
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Speaker 1: him who is drunk with this violent and tyrannic intention,
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Speaker 1: we discover of necessity, much imprudence and injustice. The impetuosity
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Speaker 1: of his dear desire carries him away. These are rash motions,
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Speaker 1: and if fortune do not very much, assist of very
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Speaker 1: little fruit. Philosophy directs that in the revenge of injuries received,
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Speaker 1: we should strip ourselves of collar, not that the chastisement
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Speaker 1: should be less, but on the contrary, that the revenge
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Speaker 1: may be the better and more heavily laid on which
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Speaker 1: it conceives will be by this impetuosity hindered, for anger
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Speaker 1: not only disturbs, but of itself also wearies the arms
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Speaker 1: of those who chastise this fire benumbs and wastes their force,
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Speaker 1: as in precipitation vestinatio tarda este haste trips up its
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Speaker 1: own heels, fetters and stops itself ipsa say volochitasim plicot,
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Speaker 1: for example, according to what I commonly see, has no
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Speaker 1: greater impediment than itself. The more bent and vigorous it is,
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Speaker 1: the less it rakes together, and commonly sooner grows rich
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Speaker 1: when disguised in a visor of liberality. A very honest gentleman,
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Speaker 1: and a particular friend of mine, had liked to have
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Speaker 1: cracked his brains by a too passionate attention and affection
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Speaker 1: to the affairs of a certain prince his master. Which
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Speaker 1: master has thus set himself out to me that he
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Speaker 1: foresees the weight of accidents as well as another, but
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Speaker 1: that in those for which there is no remedy he
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Speaker 1: presently resolves upon suffering. In others, having taken all the
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Speaker 1: necessary precautions, which by the vivacity of his understanding he
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Speaker 1: can presently do, he quietly awaits what may follow. And
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Speaker 1: in truth I have accordingly seen him maintain a great
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Speaker 1: indifferency and liberty of actions, and serenity of countenance in
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Speaker 1: very great and difficult affairs. I find him much greater
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Speaker 1: and of greater capacity in adverse than in prosperous fortune.
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Speaker 1: His defeats are to him more glorious than his victories,
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Speaker 1: and his mourning than his triumph. Do but consider that
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Speaker 1: even in vain and frivolous actions, as at chess, tennis
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Speaker 1: and the like, this eager and ardent engaging with an
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Speaker 1: impetuous desire immediately throws the mind and members into indiscretion
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Speaker 1: and disorder. A man astounds and hinders himself. He who
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Speaker 1: carries himself more moderately both toward gain and loss, has
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Speaker 1: always his wits about him. The less peevish and passionate
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Speaker 1: he is at play, he plays much more advantageously and surely.
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Speaker 1: As to the rest, we hinder the mind, seizure and
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Speaker 1: hold in giving it so many things to see, some
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Speaker 1: things we should only offer to it. Tie it to others,
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Speaker 1: and with others incorporated, it can feel and discern all things,
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Speaker 1: but ought to feed upon nothing but itself, and should
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Speaker 1: be instructed in what properly concerns itself, and that is
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Speaker 1: properly of its own having and substance. The laws of
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Speaker 1: nature teach us what justly we need. After the sages
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Speaker 1: have told us that no one is indigent according to nature,
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Speaker 1: and that everyone is so according to opinion. They very
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Speaker 1: subtly distinguish between the desires that proceed from her and
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Speaker 1: those that proceed from the disorder of our own fancy.
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Speaker 1: Those of which we can see the end are hers.
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Speaker 1: Those that fly before us, and of which we can
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Speaker 1: see no end are our own. The poverty of goods
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Speaker 1: is easily cured, of the soul is irreparable. For if
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Speaker 1: what is for man enough could be enough, it were enough.
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Speaker 1: But since it is not so, how can I believe
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Speaker 1: that any wealth can give my mind content? Lucilius Socrates,
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Speaker 1: seeing a great quantity of riches, jewels, and furniture carried
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Speaker 1: in pomped through the city. How many things are there?
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Speaker 1: Said he that I do not want. Metrodorus lived on
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Speaker 1: twelve ounces a day, Epicurus, upon less. Metrocles slept in
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Speaker 1: winter abroad among sheep, in summer in the cloisters of churches.
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Speaker 1: Sufict ad id natura quaed posket. Cleanthes lived by the
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Speaker 1: labor of his own hands, and boasted that Cleayanthes, if
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Speaker 1: he would could yet maintain another clayanthes if that which
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Speaker 1: nature exactly and originally requires of us for the conservation
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Speaker 1: of our beating be too little, as in truth, what
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Speaker 1: it is, and how good cheap life may be maintained,
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Speaker 1: cannot be better expressed than by this consideration, that it
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Speaker 1: is so little that, by its littleness it escapes the
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Speaker 1: gripe and shock of fortune. Let us allow ourselves a
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Speaker 1: little more. Let us call every one of our habits
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Speaker 1: and conditions nature. Let us rate and treat ourselves by
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Speaker 1: this measure. Let us stretch our impertinences and accounts so
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Speaker 1: far for so far I fancy we have some excuse.
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Speaker 1: Custom is a second nature and no less powerful. What
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Speaker 1: is wanting to my custom? I reckon is wanting to me?
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Speaker 1: And I should be almost as well content that they
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Speaker 1: took away my life, as cut me short in the
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Speaker 1: way wherein I have so long lived. I am no
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Speaker 1: longer in condition for any great change, nor to put
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Speaker 1: myself into a new and unwonted course, not even to augmentation.
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Speaker 1: Tis pass the time for me to become other than
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Speaker 1: what I am. And as I should now complain of
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Speaker 1: any great good, hap that should now befall me that
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Speaker 1: it came not in time to be enjoyed. Quo me
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Speaker 1: he fortune us see non concai de tu uruti. So
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Speaker 1: should I complain of any inward acquisition. It were almost
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Speaker 1: better never than so late, to become an honest man
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Speaker 1: and well fit to live when one has no longer
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Speaker 1: to live, I, who am about to make my exit
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Speaker 1: out of the world, would easily resign to any newcomer
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Speaker 1: who should desire it all the prudence I am now
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Speaker 1: acquiring in the world's commerce after meat mustard, I have
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Speaker 1: no need of goods of which I can make no use,
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Speaker 1: And of what use is knowledge to him who has
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Speaker 1: lost his head? End of Section forty four.