Harvard Classics, vol 32 | Page 2

forestal
and purchase the world's opinion and favour, I would surely have
adorned myselfe more quaintly, or kept a more grave and solemne
march. I desire therein to be delineated in mine owne genuine, simple
and ordinarie fashion, without contention, art or study; for it is myself e
I pourtray. My imperfections shall therein be read to the life, and my
naturall forme discerned, so farre-forth as publike reverence hath
permitted me. For if my fortune had beene to have lived among those
nations which yet are said to live under the sweet liberty of Nature's
first and uncorrupted lawes, I assure thee, I would most willingly have
pourtrayed my selfe fully and naked. Thus, gentle Reader, myself I am
the groundworke of my booke: it is then no reason thou shouldest
employ thy time about so frivolous and vaine a subject.
Therefore farewell.
From MONTAIGNE, The First of March, 1580.

THAT WE SHOULD NOT JUDGE OF OUR HAPPINESSE UNTILL
AFTER OUR DEATH
scilicet ultima semper Expectanda dies homini est, dicique beatus Ante
obitum nemo, supremaque funera debat. [Footnote: Ovid. Met. 1, iii.
135.]
We must expect of man the latest day, Nor ere he die, he's happie, can
we say.
The very children are acquainted with the storie of Croesus to this
purpose: who being taken by Cyrus, and by him condemned to die,
upon the point of his execution, cried out aloud: "Oh Solon, Solon!"
which words of his, being reported to Cyrus, who inquiring what he
meant by them, told him, hee now at his owne cost verified the
advertisement Solon had before times given him; which was, that no
man, what cheerefull and blandishing countenance soever fortune
shewed them, may rightly deeme himselfe happie, till such time as he
have passed the last day of his life, by reason of the uncertaintie and
vicissitude of humane things, which by a very light motive, and slight
occasion, are often changed from one to another cleane contrary state
and degree. And therefore Agesilaus answered one that counted the

King of Persia happy, because being very young, he had gotten the
garland of so mightie and great a dominion: "yea but said he, Priam at
the same age was not unhappy." Of the Kings of Macedon that
succeeded Alexander the Great, some were afterward seene to become
Joyners and Scriveners at Rome: and of Tyrants of Sicilie,
Schoolemasters at Corinth. One that had conquered halfe the world,
and been Emperour over so many, Armies, became an humble and
miserable suter to the raskally officers of a king of AEgypte: At so high
a rate did that great Pompey purchase the irkesome prolonging of his
life but for five or six moneths. And in our fathers daies, Lodowicke
Sforze, tenth Duke of Millane, under whom the State of Italic had so
long beene turmoiled and shaken, was seene to die a wretched prisoner
at Loches in France, but not till he had lived and lingered ten yeares in
thraldom, which was the worst of his bargaine. The fairest Queene,
wife to the greatest King of Christendome, was she not lately scene to
die by the hands of an executioner? Oh unworthie and barbarous
cruelties And a thousand such examples. For, it seemeth that as the
sea-billowes and surging waves, rage and storme against the surly pride
and stubborne height of our buildings, so are there above, certaine
spirits that envie the rising prosperities and greatnesse heere below.
Vsque adeb res humanas vis abdita quadam Obterit, et pulchros fasces
sav&sque secures Proculcare, ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur. [Footnote:
LUCRET. I. v. 1243.]
A hidden power so mens states hath out-worne Faire swords, fierce
scepters, signes of honours borne, It seemes to trample and deride in
scorne.
And it seemeth Fortune doth sometimes narrowly watch the last day of
our life, thereby to shew her power, and in one moment to overthrow
what for many yeares together she had been erecting, and makes us cry
after Laberius, Nimirum hoc die una plus vixi, mihi quam vivendum
fuit. [Footnote: MACHOB, 1, ii. 7.] Thus it is, "I have lived longer by
this one day than I should." So may that good advice of Solon be taken
with reason. But forsomuch as he is a Philosopher, with whom the
favours or disfavours of fortune, and good or ill lucke have no place,
and are not regarded by him; and puissances and greatnesses, and
accidents of qualitie, are well-nigh indifferent: I deeme it very likely he
had a further reach, and meant that the same good fortune of our life,

which dependeth of the tranquillitie and contentment of a welborne
minde, and of the resolution and assurance of a well ordered soule,
should never be ascribed unto man, untill he have beene scene play the
last