The Essays, vol 15 | 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 15.
V. Upon Some verses of Virgil.

CHAPTER V
UPON SOME VERSES OF VIRGIL

CHAPTER V
.
By how much profitable thoughts are more full and solid, by so much
are they also more cumbersome and heavy: vice, death, poverty,
diseases, are grave and grievous subjects. A man should have his soul
instructed in the means to sustain and to contend with evils, and in the
rules of living and believing well: and often rouse it up, and exercise it
in this noble study; but in an ordinary soul it must be by intervals and
with moderation; it will otherwise grow besotted if continually intent
upon it. I found it necessary, when I was young, to put myself in mind
and solicit myself to keep me to my duty; gaiety and health do not, they
say, so well agree with those grave and serious meditations: I am at
present in another state: the conditions of age but too much put me in
mind, urge me to wisdom, and preach to me. From the excess of
sprightliness I am fallen into that of severity, which is much more
troublesome; and for that reason I now and then suffer myself
purposely a little to run into disorder, and occupy my mind in wanton
and youthful thoughts, wherewith it diverts itself. I am of late but too
reserved, too heavy, and too ripe; years every day read to me lectures of
coldness and temperance. This body of mine avoids disorder and dreads
it; 'tis now my body's turn to guide my mind towards reformation; it

governs, in turn, and more rudely and imperiously than the other; it lets
me not an hour alone, sleeping or waking, but is always preaching to
me death, patience, and repentance. I now defend myself from
temperance, as I have formerly done from pleasure; it draws me too
much back, and even to stupidity. Now I will be master of myself, to all
intents and purposes; wisdom has its excesses, and has no less need of
moderation than folly. Therefore, lest I should wither, dry up, and
overcharge myself with prudence, in the intervals and truces my
infirmities allow me:
"Mens intenta suis ne seit usque malis."
["That my mind may not eternally be intent upon my ills." --Ovid.,
Trist., iv. i, 4.]
I gently turn aside, and avert my eyes from the stormy and cloudy sky I
have before me, which, thanks be to God, I regard without fear, but not
without meditation and study, and amuse myself in the remembrance of
my better years:
"Animus quo perdidit, optat, Atque in praeterita se totus imagine
versat."
["The mind wishes to have what it has lost, and throws itself wholly
into memories of the past."--Petronius, c. 128.]
Let childhood look forward and age backward; was not this the
signification of Janus' double face? Let years draw me along if they
will, but it shall be backward; as long as my eyes can discern the
pleasant season expired, I shall now and then turn them that way;
though it escape from my blood and veins, I shall not, however, root
the image of it out of my memory:
"Hoc est Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui."
["'Tis to live twice to be able to enjoy one's former life again." --Martial,
x. 23, 7.]
Plato ordains that old men should be present at the exercises, dances,
and sports of young people, that they may rejoice in others for the
activity and beauty of body which is no more in themselves, and call to
mind the grace and comeliness of that flourishing age; and wills that in
these recreations the honour of the prize should be given to that young
man who has most diverted the company. I was formerly wont to mark
cloudy and gloomy days as extraordinary; these are now my ordinary
days; the extraordinary are the clear and bright; I am ready to leap for

joy, as for an unwonted favour, when nothing happens me. Let me
tickle myself, I cannot force a poor smile from this wretched body of
mine; I am only merry in conceit and in dreaming, by artifice to divert
the melancholy of age; but, in faith, it requires another remedy than a
dream. A weak contest of art against nature. 'Tis great folly to lengthen
and anticipate human incommodities, as every one does; I had rather be
a less while old than be old before I am really so.' I seize on even the
least occasions of pleasure I can meet. I know very well, by hearsay,
several sorts of prudent pleasures,