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40 - 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 have selected essays of Michel de Montaigne by
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  Speaker 1: Michel Liquem de Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami of Repentance,
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  Speaker 1: Part one, others form a man. I only report him
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  Speaker 1: and represent a particular one, ill fashioned enough, and whom
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  Speaker 1: if I had to model him anew, I should certainly
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  Speaker 1: make something else than what he is. But that's past
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  Speaker 1: recalling now. Though the features of my picture alter and change,
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  Speaker 1: tis not. However, unlike the world eternally turns round, all
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  Speaker 1: things therein are incessantly moving, the earth, the rocks of
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  Speaker 1: Cacassus and the pyramids of Egypt, both by the public
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  Speaker 1: motion and their own. Even constancy itself is no other
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  Speaker 1: than a slower and or languishing motion. I cannot fix
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  Speaker 1: My object tis always tottering and reeling by a natural giddiness.
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  Speaker 1: I take it as it is at the instant I
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  Speaker 1: consider it. I do not paint its being. I paint
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  Speaker 1: its passage, not a passing from one age to another, or,
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  Speaker 1: as the people say, from seven to seven years, but
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  Speaker 1: from day to day, from minute to minute. I must
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  Speaker 1: accommodate my history to the hour. I may presently change,
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  Speaker 1: not only by fortune but also by intention. Tis a
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  Speaker 1: counterpart of various and changeable accidents and of irresolute imaginations.
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  Speaker 1: And as it falls out, sometimes contrary, whether it be
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  Speaker 1: that I am then another self, or that I take
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  Speaker 1: subjects by other circumstances and considerations. So it is that
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  Speaker 1: I may, peradventure contradict myself. But as the Mahdi said,
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  Speaker 1: I never contradict the truth. Could my soul once take footing,
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  Speaker 1: I would not essay but resolve. But it is always
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  Speaker 1: learning and making trial. I propose a life ordinary and
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  Speaker 1: without luster, tis all one. All moral philosophy may as
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  Speaker 1: well be applied to a common and private life as
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  Speaker 1: to one of richer composition. Every man carries the entire
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  Speaker 1: form of human condition. Authors communicate themselves to the people
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  Speaker 1: by some especial and extrinsic mark I the first of any,
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  Speaker 1: by my universal being, as Michel de Montaigne, not as
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  Speaker 1: a grammarian, a poet, or a lawyer. If the world
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  Speaker 1: find fault that I speak too much of myself, I
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  Speaker 1: find fault that they do not so much as think
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  Speaker 1: of themselves. But is it reason that, being so particular
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  Speaker 1: in my way of living, I should pretend to recommend
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  Speaker 1: myself to the public knowledge. And is it also reason
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  Speaker 1: that I should produce to the world, where art and
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  Speaker 1: handling have so much credit and authority, crude and simple
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  Speaker 1: effects of nature and of a weak nature to boot?
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  Speaker 1: Is it not to build a wall without stone or
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  Speaker 1: brick or some other thing? To write books without learning
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  Speaker 1: and without art? The fancies of music are carried on
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  Speaker 1: by art. Mine by chance I have this, at least
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  Speaker 1: according to discipline. That never any man treated of a
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  Speaker 1: subject he better understood anew than I what I have undertaken.
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  Speaker 1: And that is this I am the most understanding man alive. Secondly,
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  Speaker 1: that never any man penetrated farther into his matter, nor
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  Speaker 1: better and more distinctly sifted the parts and sequences of it,
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  Speaker 1: nor ever more exactly and fully arrived at the end
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  Speaker 1: he proposed to himself to perfect it. I need bring
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  Speaker 1: nothing but fidelity to the work, and that is there,
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  Speaker 1: and the most pure and sincere that is anywhere to
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  Speaker 1: be found. I speak truth, not so much as I would,
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  Speaker 1: but as much as I dare, And I dare a
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  Speaker 1: little the more as I grow older FORMA thinks custom
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  Speaker 1: allows to age more liberty of prating and more indiscretion
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  Speaker 1: of talking of a man's self. That cannot fall out here,
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  Speaker 1: which I often see elsewhere, that the work and the
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  Speaker 1: artificer contradict one another. Can a man of such sober
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  Speaker 1: conversation have written so foolish a book, or do so
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  Speaker 1: learned writings proceed from a man of so weak conversation.
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  Speaker 1: He who talks at a a very ordinary rate and
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  Speaker 1: writes rare matter tis to say that his capacity is
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  Speaker 1: borrowed and not his own. A learned man is not
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  Speaker 1: learned in all things, but a sufficient man is sufficient
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  Speaker 1: throughout even to ignorance itself. Here my book and I
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  Speaker 1: go hand in hand together. Elsewhere men may commend or
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  Speaker 1: censure the work without reference to the workmen, Here they cannot.
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  Speaker 1: Who touches the one touches the other. He who shall
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  Speaker 1: judge of it without knowing him will more wrong himself
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  Speaker 1: than me. He who does know him gives me all
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  Speaker 1: the satisfaction I desire. I shall be happy beyond my
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  Speaker 1: dessert if I can obtain only thus much from the
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  Speaker 1: public approbation as to make men of understanding perceive that
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  Speaker 1: I was capable of profiting by knowledge had I had it,
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  Speaker 1: and that I deserve to been assisted by a better memory.
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  Speaker 1: Be pleased here to excuse what I often repeat, that
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  Speaker 1: I very rarely repent, and that my conscience is satisfied
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  Speaker 1: with itself, not as the conscience of an angel or
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  Speaker 1: that of a horse, but as the conscience of a man,
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  Speaker 1: always adding this clause not one of ceremony, but a
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  Speaker 1: true and real submission, that I speak inquiring and doubting,
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  Speaker 1: purely and simply referring myself to the common and accepted beliefs.
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  Speaker 1: For the resolution I do not teach, I only relate.
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  Speaker 1: There is no vice that is absolutely a vice which
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  Speaker 1: does not offend, and that a sound judgment does not accuse.
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  Speaker 1: For there is in it so manifest a deformity and
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  Speaker 1: inconvenience that peradventure. They are in the right who say
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  Speaker 1: that it is chiefly begotten by stupidity and ignorance, So
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  Speaker 1: hard it is to imagine that a man can know
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  Speaker 1: without abhorring it. Malice sucks up the greatest part of
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  Speaker 1: its own venom and poisons itself. Vice leaves repentance in
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  Speaker 1: the soul like an ulcer in the flesh, which is
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  Speaker 1: always scratching and lacerating itself, for reason effaces all other
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  Speaker 1: grief and sorrows. But it begets that of repentance, which
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  Speaker 1: is so much the more grievous by reason it springs within,
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  Speaker 1: as the cold and heat of fevers are more sharp
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  Speaker 1: than those that only strike upon the outward skin. I
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  Speaker 1: hold for vices, but every one according to its proportion,
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  Speaker 1: not only those which reason and nature condemn, but those
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  Speaker 1: also which the opinion of men, though false and erroneous,
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  Speaker 1: have made such if authorized by law and custom. There
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  Speaker 1: is likewise no virtue which does not rejoice a well
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  Speaker 1: descended nature. There is a kind of I know not
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  Speaker 1: what congratulation in well doing that gives us an inward satisfaction,
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  Speaker 1: and a generous boldness that accompanies a good conscience. A
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  Speaker 1: soul daringly vicious may peradventure arm itself with security, but
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  Speaker 1: it cannot supply itself with this complacency and satisfaction' Tis
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  Speaker 1: no little satisfaction to feel a man's self preserved from
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  Speaker 1: the contagion of so depraved an age, and to say
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  Speaker 1: to himself, whoever could penetrate into my soul would not
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  Speaker 1: there find me guilty either. Of the affliction or ruin
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  Speaker 1: of anyone, or of revenge or envy, or any offense
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  Speaker 1: against the public laws, or of innovation or disturbance, or
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  Speaker 1: failure of my word. And though the license of the
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  Speaker 1: time permits and teaches everyone to do so, yet have
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  Speaker 1: I not plundered any Frenchman's goods or taken his money,
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  Speaker 1: and have lived upon what is my own in war
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  Speaker 1: as well as in peace. Neither have I set any
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  Speaker 1: man to work without paying him his hire. These testimonies
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  Speaker 1: of good conscience please, and this natural rejoicing is very
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  Speaker 1: beneficial to us, and the only reward that we can
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  Speaker 1: never fail of to ground the recompense of virtuous actions
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  Speaker 1: upon the approbation of others is too uncertain and unsafe
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  Speaker 1: a foundation, especially in so corrupt and ignorant an age
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  Speaker 1: as this, wherein the good opinion of the vulgar is injurious.
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  Speaker 1: Upon whom do you rely to show you what is recommendable?
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  Speaker 1: God defend me from being an honest man. According to
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  Speaker 1: the descriptions of honor, I daily see every man make
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  Speaker 1: of himself qhy fuere anuitia more sunt some of my
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  Speaker 1: friends have a time schooled and scolded me with great
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  Speaker 1: sincerity and plainness, either of their own voluntary motion or
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  Speaker 1: by me entreated to it, as to an office which,
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  Speaker 1: to a well composed soul, surpasses, not only in utility,
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  Speaker 1: but in kindness, all other offices of friendship. I have
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  Speaker 1: always received them with the most open arms, both of
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  Speaker 1: courtesy and acknowledgment. But to say the truth, I have
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  Speaker 1: often found so much false measure, both in their reproaches
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  Speaker 1: and praises, that I had not done much amiss, rather
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  Speaker 1: to have done ill than to have done well according
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  Speaker 1: to their notions. We who live private lives, not exposed
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  Speaker 1: to any other view than our own, ought chiefly to
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  Speaker 1: have settled a pattern within ourselves by which to try
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  Speaker 1: our actions, and according to that, sometimes to encourage and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes to correct ourselves. I have my laws and my
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  Speaker 1: judicature to judge myself, and apply myself more to THEE
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  Speaker 1: than to any other rules. I do, indeed restrain my
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  Speaker 1: actions according to others, but extend them not to any
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  Speaker 1: other rule than my own. You yourself, only know if
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  Speaker 1: you are cowardly and cruel, loyal and devout. Others see
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  Speaker 1: you not, and only guess at you by uncertain conjectures,
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  Speaker 1: and do not so much see your nature as your art.
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  Speaker 1: Rely not therefore upon their opinions, but stick to your own.
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  Speaker 1: Thou must employ thy own judgment upon thyself. Great is
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  Speaker 1: the weight of thy own conscience and the discovery of
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  Speaker 1: thy own virtues and vices, that being taken away, all
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  Speaker 1: things are lost, says Cicero. But the saying that repentance
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  Speaker 1: immediately follows the sin seems not to have respect to
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  Speaker 1: sin in its highest state, which is lodged in us
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  Speaker 1: as in its own proper habitation. One may disown and
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  Speaker 1: retract the vices that surprise us and to which we
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  Speaker 1: are hurried by passions, But those by which a long
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  Speaker 1: habit are rooted in a strong and vigorous will, are
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  Speaker 1: not subject to contradiction. Repentance is no other but a
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  Speaker 1: recanting of the will, and an opposition to our fancies,
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  Speaker 1: which lead us which way they please. It makes this
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  Speaker 1: person disown his former virtue and continency, and say, with horace,
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  Speaker 1: why was I not of the same mind when I
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  Speaker 1: was a boy that I am now? Or why do
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  Speaker 1: not the ready cheeks of my youth return to help
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  Speaker 1: me now? 'tis an exact life that maintains itself in
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  Speaker 1: due order. In private, every one may juggle his part
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  Speaker 1: and represent an honest man upon the stage. But within
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  Speaker 1: and in his own bosom, where all may do as
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  Speaker 1: they list, where all is concealed to be regular, there's
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  Speaker 1: the point. The next degree is to be so in
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  Speaker 1: his house and in his ordinary actions, for which we
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  Speaker 1: are accountable to none, and where there is no study
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  Speaker 1: nor artifice, and therefore bias. Setting forth the excellent state
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  Speaker 1: of a private family says of which the master is
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  Speaker 1: the same within by his own virtue and temper, that
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  Speaker 1: he is abroad for fear of the laws and report
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  Speaker 1: of men. And it was a worthy saying of Julius
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  Speaker 1: Druce's to the Masons, who offered him for three thousand
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  Speaker 1: crowns to put his house in such a posture that
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  Speaker 1: his neighbors should no longer have the same inspection into
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  Speaker 1: it as before. I will give you, said he six thousand,
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  Speaker 1: to make it so that everybody can see into every room.
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  Speaker 1: Tis honorably recorded of a jeslause that he used in
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  Speaker 1: his journeys always to take up his lodgings in temples,
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  Speaker 1: to the end that the people and the gods themselves
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  Speaker 1: might pry into his most private actions. End of Section
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  Speaker 1: forty