문학적및 철학적 에세이들.The Book of Literary and Philosophical Essays, by Various

문학적및 철학적 에세이들.The Book of Literary and Philosophical Essays, by Various
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Michel Eyquem De Montaigne, the founder of the modern Essay, was born
February 28, 1533, at the chateau of Montaigne in Pirigord. He came of a family
of wealthy merchants of Bordeaux, and was educated at the College de
Guyenne, where he had among his teachers the great Scottish Latinist, George
Buchanan. Later he studied law, and held various public offices; but at the age
of thirty- eight he retired to his estates, where he lived apart from the civil wars
of the time, and devoted himself to study and thought. While he was traveling in
Germany and Italy, in 1580- 81, he was elected mayor of Bordeaux, and this
office he filled for four years. He married in 1565, and had six daughters, only
one of whom grew up. The first two books of his "Essays" appeared in 1580;
the third in 1588; and four years later he died.
These are the main external facts of Montaigne's life: of the man himself the
portrait is to be found in his book. "It is myself I portray," he declares; and there
is nowhere in literature a volume of self- revelation surpassing his in charm and
candor. He is frankly egotistical, yet modest and unpretentious; profoundly
wise, yet constantly protesting his ignorance; learned, yet careless, forgetful,
and inconsistent. His themes are as wide and varied as his observation of
human life, and he has written the finest eulogy of friendship the world has
known. Bacon, who knew his book and borrowed from it, wrote on the same
subject; and the contrast of the essays is the true reflection of the contrast
between the personalities of their authors.
Shortly after Montaigne's death the "Essays" were translated into English by
John Florio, with less than exact accuracy, but in a style so full of the flavor of
the age that we still read Montaigne in the version which Shakespeare knew.
The group of examples here printed exhibits the author in a variety of moods,
easy, serious, and, in the essay on "Friendship," as nearly impassioned as his
philosophy ever allowed him to become.