The Essays, vol 11 | Page 4

to sample the author's ideas before making
an entire meal of them. D.W.]

ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Translated by Charles Cotton
Edited by William Carew Hazilitt
1877

CONTENTS OF VOLUME 11.
XIII. Of judging of the death of another. XIV. That the mind hinders
itself. XV. That our desires are augmented by difficulty. XVI. Of glory.
XVII. Of presumption.

CHAPTER XIII
OF JUDGING OF THE DEATH OF ANOTHER
When we judge of another's assurance in death, which, without doubt,
is the most remarkable action of human life, we are to take heed of one
thing, which is that men very hardly believe themselves to have arrived
to that period. Few men come to die in the opinion that it is their latest
hour; and there is nothing wherein the flattery of hope more deludes us;
It never ceases to whisper in our ears, "Others have been much sicker
without dying; your condition is not so desperate as 'tis thought; and, at
the worst, God has done other miracles." Which happens by reason that
we set too much value upon ourselves; it seems as if the universality of
things were in some measure to suffer by our dissolution, and that it
commiserates our condition, forasmuch as our disturbed sight
represents things to itself erroneously, and that we are of opinion they
stand in as much need of us as we do of them, like people at sea, to
whom mountains, fields, cities, heaven and earth are tossed at the same
rate as they are:
"Provehimur portu, terraeque urbesque recedunt:"
["We sail out of port, and cities and lands recede." --AEneid, iii. 72.]
Whoever saw old age that did not applaud the past and condemn the
present time, laying the fault of his misery and discontent upon the

world and the manners of men?
"Jamque caput quassans, grandis suspirat arator. Et cum tempora
temporibus praesentia confert Praeteritis, laudat fortunas saepe parentis,
Et crepat antiquum genus ut pietate repletum."
["Now the old ploughman, shaking his head, sighs, and compares
present times with past, often praises his parents' happiness, and talks
of the old race as full of piety."--Lucretius, ii. 1165.]
We will make all things go along with us; whence it follows that we
consider our death as a very great thing, and that does not so easily pass,
nor without the solemn consultation of the stars:
"Tot circa unum caput tumultuantes dens,"
["All the gods to agitation about one man." --Seneca, Suasor, i. 4.]
and so much the more think it as we more value ourselves. "What, shall
so much knowledge be lost, with so much damage to the world, without
a particular concern of the destinies? Does so rare and exemplary a soul
cost no more the killing than one that is common and of no use to the
public? This life, that protects so many others, upon which so many
other lives depend, that employs so vast a number of men in his service,
that fills so many places, shall it drop off like one that hangs but by its
own simple thread? None of us lays it enough to heart that he is but one:
thence proceeded those words of Caesar to his pilot, more tumid than
the sea that threatened him:
"Italiam si coelo auctore recusas, Me pete: sola tibi causa est haec justa
timoris, Vectorem non nosce tuum; perrumpe procellas, Tutela secure
mea."
["If you decline to sail to Italy under the God's protection, trust to mine;
the only just cause you have to fear is, that you do not know your
passenger; sail on, secure in my guardianship." --Lucan, V. 579.]
And these:

"Credit jam digna pericula Caesar Fatis esse suis; tantusne evertere,
dixit, Me superis labor est, parva quern puppe sedentem, Tam magno
petiere mari;"
["Caesar now deemed these dangers worthy of his destiny: 'What!' said
he, 'is it for the gods so great a task to overthrow me, that they must be
fain to assail me with great seas in a poor little bark.'"--Lucan, v. 653.]
and that idle fancy of the public, that the sun bore on his face mourning
for his death a whole year:
"Ille etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam, Cum caput obscura
nitidum ferrugine texit:"
["Caesar being dead, the sun in mourning clouds, pitying Rome,
clothed himself."--Virgil, Georg., i. 466.]
and a thousand of the like, wherewith the world suffers itself to be so
easily imposed upon, believing that our interests affect the heavens, and
that their infinity is concerned at our ordinary actions:
"Non tanta caelo societas nobiscum est, ut nostro fato mortalis sit ille
quoque siderum fulgor."
["There is no such alliance betwixt us and heaven, that the brightness of
the stars should be made also mortal by our death." --Pliny, Nat. Hist.,
ii. 8.]
Now, to judge