Montaigne's Essais have been the subject of much conflicting criticism. If we reflect upon the age and the intellectual condition of the country in which the author lived, we must consider them a verj' extraordi- nary production, not so much on account of the learn- ingcontained in the work, although that is very con- siderable, as for the clear good-sense, philosophical spir- it, and frank, liberal tone which pervades their pages, as well as for the attractive simplicity of the language. Literature was then at a very low ebb in France, the language was hardly formed, the country was dis- turbed by feudal turbulence, ignorant fanaticism, dead- ly intolerance, and civil factions, and j'et in the midst of all this a country gentleman, living in a remote province, himself belonging to the then rude, fierce, feudal aristocracj-, composed a work full of moral max- ims and precepts, conceived in the spirit of the ancient philosophers of Greece and Rome, and founded on a system of natural ethics, on the beauty of virtue and of justice, and on the lessons of history ; and this book was read with avidity amid the turmoil of factions, the din of civil war, and the cries of persecution and mur- der. "The Essais of Montaigne," says Hallam, "make in several respects an epoch in literature, less on ac- count of their real importance than of their influence on the taste and opinions of Europe. ... No prose writer of the 16th century has been so generally read, nor, probably, given so much delight. Whatever may be our estimate of Montaigne as a philosopher — a name which he was far from arrogating— there will be but one opinion of the felicity and brightness of his genius" (^Introduction to the Literature of Europe, ii, 29). " The author of these Essais," says Leo Joubert, "is certainly the most independent spirit that ever ex- isted— independent without revolt, and detached from the sj'stems of others without having any sj'stem of his own. , . . We recognise in his Essais a nature well endowed, not heroic, perhaps, but generous, exquisite- ly sensible, not aspiring to the sublime, capable of de- votion, and incapable of a base act — in fine, a model of what we may call average virtue" {la vertu moyenne') (^Nouvelk Biographie Generate, s. v.). Sprightly hu- mor, independence, naivete, and originality are the characteristics of his mind; and his style is admired for its graceful simplicity. His works are highly sea- soned with his own individuality, and aff'ord much in- sight into his character. "The Essais," says Emer- son, " are an entertaining soliloquy on every random topic that came into the author's head — treating ev- erything without ceremony', yet with masculine sense. There have been men with deeper insight, but, one •would sa}', never a man with such abundance of thoughts: he is never dull, never insincere, and has the genius to make the reader c:ire for all that he cares for. . . . This book of Montaigne the world has endorsed by translating it into all tongues and printing seventy- five editions of it in Europe — and that, too, a circula- tion somewhat chosen, namel}', among courtiers, sol- diers, princes, men of the world, and men of wit and generosit}'" {Representative Men). John INIorley, the eminent English writer and most recent biographer of Jean Jacques Rousseau (Lond. 1873, 2 vols. 8vo), fre- quently turns aside to pay a tribute to ^lontaigne, and acknowledges that the author of Emile had read Mon-
taigne's Essais "with that profit and increase which attends the dropping of the good ideas of other men into fertile minds" (ii, 198 ; comp. i, 144).
The morality of the Essais has been called — and not unreasonably, though not correctly in the expres- sion— a pagan morality : it is not founded on the faith and the hopes of Christianity, and its principles are in many respects widely diff'erent from those of the Gos- pel. Montaigne was a sceptic, but not a determinetl infidel ; his philosophy is in a great measure that of Seneca and other ancient writers, whose books were the first that were put into his hands when a child. Ac- cordingly Pascal, Nicole, and other Christian moral- ists, while they do justice to Montaigne's talents, and the many good sentiments contained in his work, are very severe upon his ethics, taken as a system. "An- cient scepticism," saj's Ueberweg, "was revived, and, in part, in a peculiar manner further developed by Montaigne. The scepticism of this clever man of the world was more or less directed to doctrines of Chris- tianity, but was generall}^ brought in the end, by a — whether sincere or merely prudent — recognition of the necessity of a revelation, on account of the weakness of human reason, into harmonj' with theology" {flisf. Philos. [N. Y. 1874, 2 vols, 8vo] ii, 14 ; comp. Fisher, Hist. Ref. [N. Y. 1873, 8vo] p. 251). One of the ablest of moralists of our own time, Prof.Vinet, has given, we think, a very fair anah-sis of the spirit of Mon- taigne's ethics {Essais de Philosophie Morale Eeliffieuse suivis de quelques Essais de Critique Littiraii-e, Paris, 1828). In the fiftj'-fourth chapter of the first book of the Essais, Montaigne, after distinguishing two sorts of ignorance, the one which precedes all instruction, and the other which follows partial instruction, goes on to say that "men of simple minds, devoid of curi- osity and of learning, are Christians through rever- ence and obedience ; that minds of middle growth and moderate capacities are most prone to doubt and er- ror ; but that higher intellects, more clear-sighted, and better grounded in science, form a superior class of believers, who, through long and religious investi- gations, arrive at the fountain of light of the Script- ures, and feel the mysterious and divine meaning of our ecclesiastical doctrines. And we see some who reach this last stage through the second, with marvel- lous fruit and confirmation, and who, having attained the extreme boundary of Christian intelligence, enjoy their success with modesty and thanksgiving ; unlike those men of another stamp, who, in order to clear themselves of the suspicions arising from their past errors, become violent, indiscreet, unjust, and throw discredit on the cause they pretend to serve." A few lines farther on Slontaigne modestl}' places himself in the second class, namely, of those who, disdaining the first state of uninformed simplicity, have not yet at- tained the third and last exalted stage, "and who," he says, "are thereby rendered inept, importunate, and troublesome to society. But I, for my part, endeavor, as much as I can, to fall back upon my first and natural condition, from which I have idly attempted to de- part." In his chapter on pra3'ers (bk. i, 56) he recom- mends the use of the Lord's Praj'er in terms evidently sincere ; and in the journal of his travels, which was not intended for publication, he manifested Christian sentiments in several places. Montaigne has been censured for several licentious and some cynical pas- sages in his Essais. This licentiousness, however, ap- pears to be rather in the expressions than in the mean- ing of the author. He spoke plainly of things which are not alluded to in a more refined state of society, but he did so evidentlj' without bad intentions, and only followed the common usage of his time. Mon- taigne combats earnestly the malignant feelings fre- quent in man— injustice, oppression, inhumanity, un- charitableness. His chapters on pedantry, on the ed- ucation of children, and on the administration of jus- tice, are remarkably good. He also throws much