The Essays, vol 3 | 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 3.
XIII. The ceremony of the interview of princes. XIV. That men are
justly punished for being obstinate in the defence of a fort that is not in
reason to be defended XV. Of the punishment of cowardice. XVI. A
proceeding of some ambassadors. XVII. Of fear. XVIII. That men are
not to judge of our happiness till after death. XIX. That to study
philosophy is to learn to die. XX. Of the force of imagination. XXI.
That the profit of one man is the damage of another.

CHAPTER XIII
THE CEREMONY OF THE INTERVIEW OF PRINCES
There is no subject so frivolous that does not merit a place in this
rhapsody. According to our common rule of civility, it would be a
notable affront to an equal, and much more to a superior, to fail being
at home when he has given you notice he will come to visit you. Nay,
Queen Margaret of Navarre--[Marguerite de Valois, authoress of the
'Heptameron']--further adds, that it would be a rudeness in a gentleman
to go out, as we so often do, to meet any that is coming to see him, let
him be of what high condition soever; and that it is more respectful and
more civil to stay at home to receive him, if only upon the account of
missing him by the way, and that it is enough to receive him at the door,
and to wait upon him. For my part, who as much as I can endeavour to
reduce the ceremonies of my house, I very often forget both the one
and the other of these vain offices. If, peradventure, some one may take
offence at this, I can't help it; it is much better to offend him once than
myself every day, for it would be a perpetual slavery. To what end do
we avoid the servile attendance of courts, if we bring the same trouble
home to our own private houses? It is also a common rule in all

assemblies, that those of less quality are to be first upon the place, by
reason that it is more due to the better sort to make others wait and
expect them.
Nevertheless, at the interview betwixt Pope Clement and King Francis
at Marseilles,--[in 1533.]--the King, after he had taken order for the
necessary preparations for his reception and entertainment, withdrew
out of the town, and gave the Pope two or three days' respite for his
entry, and to repose and refresh himself, before he came to him. And in
like manner, at the assignation of the Pope and the Emperor,--[Charles
V. in 1532.] at Bologna, the Emperor gave the Pope opportunity to
come thither first, and came himself after; for which the reason given
was this, that at all the interviews of such princes, the greater ought to
be first at the appointed place, especially before the other in whose
territories the interview is appointed to be, intimating thereby a kind of
deference to the other, it appearing proper for the less to seek out and to
apply themselves to the greater, and not the greater to them.
Not every country only, but every city and every society has its
particular forms of civility. There was care enough to this taken in my
education, and I have lived in good company enough to know the
formalities of our own nation, and am able to give lessons in it. I love
to follow them, but not to be so servilely tied to their observation that
my whole life should be enslaved to ceremonies, of which there are
some so troublesome that, provided a man omits them out of discretion,
and not for want of breeding, it will be every whit as handsome. I have
seen some people rude, by being overcivil and troublesome in their
courtesy.
Still, these excesses excepted, the knowledge of courtesy and good
manners is a very necessary study. It is, like grace and beauty, that
which begets liking and an inclination to love one another at the first
sight, and in the very beginning of acquaintance; and, consequently,
that which first opens the door and intromits us to instruct ourselves by
the example of others, and to give examples ourselves, if we have any
worth taking notice of and communicating.

CHAPTER XIV
THAT MEN ARE JUSTLY PUNISHED FOR BEING OBSTINATE
IN THE DEFENCE OF A FORT THAT IS NOT IN REASON TO BE
DEFENDED
Valour has its bounds as well as other virtues, which, once transgressed,
the next step is into the territories of vice; so that by having too large a
proportion