Latest / Selected Essays of Michel de Montaigne / 42 - Selected Essays of Michel de Montaigne by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section forty two of selected essays of Michel de Montaigne
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: by michelicaem de Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton. This librovocx
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami of Repentance,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Part three, They act quite contrary to the stoical precepts.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Who do indeed command us to correct the imperfections and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: vices we know ourselves guilty of, but forbid us therefore
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to disturb the repose of our souls. These make us
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: believe that they have great grief and remorse within, But
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of amendment, correction, or interruption, they make nothing appear. It
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: cannot be a cure if the malady be not wholly discharged.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: If repentance were laid upon the scale of the balance,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: it would weigh down sin. I find no quality so
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: easy to counterfeit as devotion. If men do not conform
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: their manners and life to the profession, its essence is
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: abstruse and occult. The appearance is easy and ostentatious. For
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: my own part, I may desire in general to be
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: other than I am. I may condemn and dislike my
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: whole form, and beg of Almighty God for an entire reformation,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and that he will please to pardon my natural infirmity.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: But I ought not to call this repentance, methinks no
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: more than the being dissatisfied that I am not an
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: angel or Cato. My actions are regular and conformable with
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: what I am, and to my condition I can do
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: no better, And repentance does not properly touch things that
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: are not in my power. Sorrow does I imagine an infinite
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: number of natures more elevated and regular than mine, And
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: yet I do not for all that improve my faculties
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: no more than my arm or my will grows more
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: strong and vigorous for conceiving those of another to be. So,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: if to conceive and wish a nobler way of acting
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: than that we have should produce a repentance of our own,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: we must then repent us of our most innocent actions,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: forasmuch as we may well suppose that in a more
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: excellent nature they would have been carried out with greater
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: dignity and perfection than we would that ours were. So,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: when I reflect upon the deportments of my youth with
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: that of my old age, I find that I have
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: commonly behaved myself with equal order in both. According to
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: what I understand, this is all that my resistance can do.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I do not flatter myself. In the same circumstances, I
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: should do the same things. It is not a patch,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: but rather an universal tincture with which I am stained.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I know no repentance, superficial, half way and ceremonious. It
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: must sting me all over before I can call it so,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: and must trick my bowels as deeply and universally as
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: God sees into me. As to business, many excellent opportunities
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: have escaped me for want of good management, and yet
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: my deliberations were sound enough according to the occurrences presented
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: to me? Is there way to choose always the easiest
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and safest course? I find that in my former resolves
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I have proceeded with discretion, according to my own rule
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: and according to the state of the subject proposed, and
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: should do the same a thousand years. Hence, in like occasions,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I do not consider what it is now, but what
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: it was then when I liberated on it. The force
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: of all counsel consists in the time, occasions, and things
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: eternally shift and change. I have in my life committed
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: some important errors, not for want of good understanding, but
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: for want of good luck. There are secret and not
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: to be foreseen parts in matters we have in hand,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: especially in the nature of men, mute conditions that make
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: no show unknown, sometimes even to the possessors themselves, that
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: spring and start up by incidental occasions. If my prudence
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: could not penetrate into nor foresee them, I blame it
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: not tis commissioned no farther than its own limits. If
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the event be too hard for me and take the
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: side I have refused, there is no remedy. I do
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: not blame myself. I accuse my fortune and not my work.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: This cannot be called repentance. Potion, having given the Athenians
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: an advice that was not followed, and the affair nevertheless
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: succeeding contrary to his opinion, someone said to him, well, Potion,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: art thou content that matters go so well. I am
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: very well content, replied he that this has happened so well.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: But I do not repent that I counseled the other.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: When any of my friends addressed themselves to me for advice,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: I give it candidly and clearly, without steeking, as almost
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: all other men do. At the hazard of the things
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: falling out contrary to my opinion, and that I may
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: be reproached for my counsel. I am very indifferent as
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to that, for the fault will be theirs for having
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: consulted me, and I could not refuse them that office. I,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: for my own part, can rarely blame anyone but myself
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: for my oversights and misfortunes. For indeed, I seldom solicit
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the advice of another, if not by honor of ceremony,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: or accepting where I stand in need of information special science,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: or as to matter of fact, but in things wherein
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I stand in need of nothing but judgment. Other men's
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: reasons may serve to fortify my own, but have little
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: power to dissuade me. I hear them all with civility
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and patience. But to my own recollection, I never made
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: use of any but my own. With me, they are
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: but flies and atoms that confound and distract my will.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I lay no great stress upon my opinions, but I
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: lay as little upon those of others, and fortune rewards
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: me accordingly. If I receive but little advice, I also
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: give but little. I am seldom consulted, and still more
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: seldom believed and know no concern, either public or private,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: but has been mended or bettered by my advice. Even
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: they whom fortune had in some sort tied to my direction,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: have more willingly suffered themselves to be governed by any
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: other counsels than mine. And as a man who am
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: as jealous of my repose as of my authority, I
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: am better pleased that it should be so. In leaving
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: me there may humor what I profess, which is to
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: settle and wholly contain myself within myself. I take a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: pleasure in being uninterested in other men's affairs, and disengaged
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: from being their warranty and responsible for what they do
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: in all affairs that are past. Be it how it will,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I have very little regret. For this imagination puts me
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: out of my pain that they were so to fall out.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: They we are in the great revolution of the world,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and in the chain of stoical causes. Your fancy cannot,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: by wish and imagination move one tittle, but that the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: great current of things will not reverse both the past
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and the future. As to the rest, I abominate the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: incidental repentance which old age brings along with it. He
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: who said of old that he was obliged to his
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: age for having weaned him from pleasure, was of another
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: opinion than I am. I can never think myself beholden
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: to impotency for any good it can do me. Nor
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: can Providence ever be seen so averse to her own
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: work that debility should be ranked among the best things quintillion.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Our appetites are rare in old age. A profound satiety
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: seizes us after the act. In this I see nothing
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: of conscience. Chagrin and weakness imprint in us a drowsy
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and rheumatic virtue. We must not suffer ourselves to be
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: so wholly carried away by natural alterations as to suffer
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: our judgments to be imposed upon by them. Youth and
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: pleasure have not formerly so far prevailed with me that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I did not well enough discern the face of vice
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: in pleasure. Neither does the distaste that years have brought
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: me so far prevail with me now that I cannot
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: discern pleasure in vice. Now that I am no more
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: in my flourishing age, I judge as well of these
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: things as if I were I who narrowly and strictly
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: examine it find my reason the very same it was
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: in my most licentious age, except perhaps that tis weaker
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: and more decayed by being grown older. And I find
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: that the pleasure it refuses me upon the account of
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: my bodily health, it would no more refuse now in
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: consideration of the health of my soul than at any time. Heretofore,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I do not repute it the more valiant for not
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: being able to combat My temptations are so broken and
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: mortified that they are not worth its opposition holding. But
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: out my hands I repel them. Should one present the
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: old concupiscence before it, I fear it would have less
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: power to resist it than Heretofore, I do not discern
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: that in itself it judges anything otherwise now than it
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: formerly did, nor that it has acquired any new light. Wherefore,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: if there be convalescence, tis an enchanted one miserable kind
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: of remedy. To owe one's health to one's disease. Tis
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: not that our misfortune should perform this office, but the
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: great fortune of our judgment. I am not to be
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: made to do anything by persecutions and afflictions, but to
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: curse them. That is, for people who cannot be roused
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: but by a whip. My reason is much more free
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: in prosperity, and much more distracted and put to it
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: to digest pains than pleasures. I see best in a
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: clear sky. Health admonishes me more cheerfully and to better
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: purpose than sickness. I did all that in me lay
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: to reform and regulate myself from pleasures at a time
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: when I had health and vigor to enjoy them. I
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: should be ashamed and envious that the misery and misfortune
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: of my old age should have credit over my good, healthful, sprightly,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: and vigorous years, and that men should estimate me not
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: by what I have been, but by what I have
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: ceased to be. In my opinion, is the happy living,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: and not, as Antistheny said, the happy dying, in which
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: human felicity consists. I have not made it my business
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to make a monstrous addition of a philosopher's tale to
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the head and body of a libertine. Nor would I
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: have this wretched remainder give the lie to the pleasant,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: sound and long part of my life. I would present
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: myself uniformly throughout. Were I to live my life over again,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I should live it just as I have lived it.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I neither complain of the past, nor do I fear
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the future. And if I am not much deceived, I
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: am the same within that I am without. Tis one
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: main obligation I have to my fortune that the succession
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: of my bodily estate has been carried on according to
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the natural seasons. I have seen the grass blossom and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the fruit, and now see the withering. Happily. However, because
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: natural I bear the infirmities, I have the better, because
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: they came not till I had reason to expect them,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: and because also they make me with greater pleasure. Remember
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: that long felicity of my past life. My wisdom may
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: have been just the same in both ages, but it
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: was more active and of better grace, while young and
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: sprightly than now it is. When broken, peevish and uneasy
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I repudiate. Then these casual and painful reformations. God must
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: touch our hearts. Our consciences must amend of themselves by
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: the aid of our reason, and not by the decay
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: of our appetites. Pleasure is in itself neither pale nor discolored,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: to be discerned by dim and decayed eyes. We ought
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: to love temperance for itself and because God has commanded
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: that and chastity. That which we are reduced to by catars,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and for which I am indebted to the stone, is
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: neither chastity nor temperance. A man cannot boast that he
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: despises and resists pleasure if he cannot see it, if
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: he knows not what it is, and cannot discern its graces,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: its force, and most alluring beauties. I know both the
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: one and the other, and they therefore the better say it.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: But methinks our souls in old age are subject to
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: more troublesome, maladies and imperfections than in youth. I said
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the same when young, and when I was reproached with
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the want of a beard, And I say so now
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: that my gray hairs give me some authority. We call
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the difficulty of our humors and the disrelish of present
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: things wisdom. But in truth we do not so much
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: forsake vices as we change them, and in my opinion,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: for worse. Besides a foolish and feeble pride, and impertinent
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: prating forward and unsociable humors, superstition, and a ridiculous desire
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: of riches when we have lost the use of them,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I find there more envy, injustice and malice. Age imprints
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and souls are never or very rarely seen that in
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: growing old do not smell sour and musty. Man moves
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: altogether both toward his perfection and decay. In observing the
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: wisdom of Socrates and many circumstances of his condemnation, I
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: should dare to believe that he, in some sort himself,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: purposely by collusion, contributed to it. Seeing at the age
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: of seventy years he might fear to suffer the lofty
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: motions of his mind to be cramped and his wonted
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: lust or obscured. What strange metamie orphoses do I see
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: age every day make in many of my acquaintances. Tis
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: a potent malady, and that naturally and imperceptibly steals into us.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: A vast provision of study and great precaution are required
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: to evade the imperfections it loads us with, or at
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: least to weaken their progress. I find that, notwithstanding all
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: my entrenchments, it gets foot by foot upon me. I
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: make the best resistance I can, but I do not
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: know to what at last it will reduce me, but
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: fallout what will I am content? The world may know
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: when I am fallen from what I fell. End of
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Section forty two.