Humanist, skeptic, acute observer of himself and others, Michel de Montaigne (153392) was the first to use the term "essay" to refer to the form he pioneered, and he has remained one of its most famous practitioners. He reflected on the great themes of existence in his wise and engaging writings, his subjects ranging from proper conversation and good reading, to the raising of children and the endurance of pain, from solitude, destiny, time, and custom, to truth, consciousness, and death. Having stood the test of time, his essays continue to influence writers nearly five hundred years later. Also included in this complete edition of his works are Montaigne's letters and his travel journal, fascinating records of the experiences and contemplations that would shape and infuse his essays. Montaigne speaks to us always in a personal voice in which his virtues of tolerance, moderation, and understanding are dazzlingly manifest. Donald M. Frame's masterful translation is widely acknowledged to be the classic English version.

Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne, was born in 1533, the son and heir of Pierre, Seigneur de Montaigne (two previous children dying soon after birth). He was brought up to speak Latin as his mother tongue and always retained a Latin turn of mind; though he knew Greek, he preferred to use translations. After studying law he eventually became counselor to the Parlement of Bordeaux. He married in 1565. In 1569 he published his French version of the Natural Theology of Raymond Sebond; his Apology is only partly a defense of Sebond and sets skeptical limits to human reasoning about God, man and nature. He retired in 1571 to his lands at Montaigne, devoting himself to reading and reflection and to composing his Essays (first version, 1580). He loathed the fanaticism and cruelties of the religious wars of the period, but sided with Catholic orthodoxy and legitimate monarchy. He was twice elected Mayor of Bordeaux (1581 and 1583), a post he held for four years. He died at Montaigne (1592) while preparing the final, and richest, edition of his Essays.

Introduction
Translator's Note
Select Bibliography
Chronology
Essays
By diverse means we arrive at the same end (1578-80)	p. 3
Of sadness (1572-74)	p. 6
Our feelings reach out beyond us (1572-74)	p. 9
How the soul discharges its passions on false objects when the true are wanting (1572-74)	p. 16
Whether the governor of a besieged place should go out to parley (1572-74)	p. 18
Parley time is dangerous (1572-74)	p. 20
That intention is judge of our actions (1572-74)	p. 23
Of idleness (1572-74)	p. 24
Of liars (1572-74)	p. 25
Of prompt or slow speech (1572-74)	p. 30
Of prognostications (1572-74)	p. 32
Of constancy (1572-74)	p. 35
Ceremony of interviews between kings (1572-74)	p. 38
That the taste of good and evil depends in large part on the opinion we have of them (1572-74)	p. 39
One is punished for defending a place obstinately without reason (1572-74)	p. 56
Of the punishment of cowardice (1572-74)	p. 57
A trait of certain ambassadors (1572-74)	p. 59
Of fear (1572-74)	p. 62
That our happiness must not be judged until after our death (1572-74)	p. 64
That to philosophize is to learn to die (1572-74)	p. 67
Of the power of the imagination (1572-74)	p. 82
One man's profit is another man's harm (1572-80)	p. 92
Of custom, and not easily changing an accepted law (1572-74)	p. 93
Various outcomes of the same plan (1572-80)	p. 109
Of pedantry (1572-78)	p. 118
Of the education of children (1579-80)	p. 129
It is folly to measure the true and false by our own capacity (1572-74)	p. 160
Of friendship (1572-76, 1578-80)	p. 164
Twenty-nine sonnets of Etienne de La Boetie (1578-80)	p. 176
Of moderation (1572-80)	p. 177
Of cannibals (1578-80)	p. 182
We should meddle soberly with judging divine ordinances (1572-74)	p. 194
To flee from sensual pleasures at the price of life (1575-74)	p. 196
Fortune is often met in the path of reason (1572-74)	p. 197
Of a lack in our administrations (1572-74)	p. 200
Of the custom of wearing clothes (1572-74)	p. 201
Of Cato the Younger (1572-74)	p. 205
How we cry and laugh for the same thing (1572-74)	p. 208
Of solitude (1572-74)	p. 211
A consideration upon Cicero (1572-74)	p. 222
Of not communicating one's glory (1572-74)	p. 227
Of the inequality that is between us (1572-74)	p. 229
Of sumptuary laws (1572-74)	p. 238
Of sleep (1572-74)	p. 240
Of the battle of Dreux (1572-74)	p. 242
Of names (1572-74)	p. 243
Of the uncertainty of our judgment (1572-74)	p. 248
Of war horses (1572-74)	p. 254
Of ancient customs (1572-80)	p. 261
Of Democritus and Heraclitus (1572-80)	p. 266
Of the vanity of words (1572-80)	p. 269
Of the parsimony of the ancients (1572-80)	p. 271
Of a saying of Caesar's (1572-80)	p. 272
Of vain subtleties (1572-80)	p. 273
Of smells (1572-80)	p. 276
Of prayers (1572-80)	p. 278
Of age (1572-80)	p. 287
Of the inconsistency of our actions (1572-74)	p. 290
Of drunkenness (1573-74)	p. 296
A custom of the island of Cea (1573-74)	p. 303
Let business wait till tomorrow (1573-74)	p. 318
Of conscience (1573-74)	p. 320
Of practice (1573-74)	p. 324
Of honorary awards (1578-80)	p. 334
Of the affection of fathers for their children (1578-80)	p. 337
Of the arms of the Parthians (1578-80)	p. 356
Of books (1578-80)	p. 359
Of cruelty (1578-80)	p. 372
Apology for Raymond Sebond (1575-76, 1578-80)	p. 386
Of judging of the death of others (1572-80)	p. 556
How our mind hinders itself (1575-76	p. 562
That our desire is increased by difficulty (1575-76)	p. 563
Of glory (1578-80)	p. 568
Of presumption (1578-80)	p. 581
Of giving the lie (1578-80)	p. 611
Of freedom of conscience (1578-80)	p. 615
We taste nothing pure (1578-80)	p. 619
Against do-nothingness (1578-80)	p. 622
Of riding post (1578-80)	p. 626
Of evil means employed to a good end (1578-80)	p. 627
Of the greatness of Rome (1578-80)	p. 630
Not to counterfeit being sick (1578-80)	p. 632
Of thumbs (1578-80)	p. 634
Cowardice, mother of cruelty (1578-80)	p. 635
All things have their season (1578-80)	p. 644
Of virtue (1578-80)	p. 646
Of a monstrous child (1578-80)	p. 653
Of anger (1578-80)	p. 655
Defense of Seneca and Plutarch (1578-80)	p. 661
The story of Spurina (1578-80)	p. 667
Observations on Julius Caesar's methods of making war (1578-80)	p. 674
Of three good women (1578-80)	p. 683
Of the most oustanding men (1578-80)	p. 690
Of the resemblance of children to fathers (1579-80)	p. 696
Of the useful and the honorable (1585-88)	p. 726
Of repentance (1585-88)	p. 740
Of three kinds of association (1585-88)	p. 753
Of diversion (1585-88)	p. 764
On some verses of Virgil (1585-88)	p. 774
Of coaches (1585-88)	p. 831
Of the disadvantage of greatness (1585-88)	p. 849
Of the art of discussion (1585-88)	p. 854
Of vanity (1585-88)	p. 876
Of husbanding your will (1585-88)	p. 932
Of cripples (1585-88)	p. 954
Of physiognomy (1585-88)	p. 964
Of experience (1587-88)	p. 992
Travel Journal
Across France toward Switzerland (September 5-28, 1580)	p. 1056
Switzerland (September 29-October 7, 1580)	p. 1068
Germany, Austria, and the Alps (October 8-27, 1580)	p. 1082
Italy: The road to Rome (October 28-November 29, 1580)	p. 1112
Italy: Rome (November 30, 1580-April 19, 1581)	p. 1141
Italy: From Rome to Loreto and La Villa (April 19-May 7, 1581)	p. 1179
Italy: First stay at La Villa (May 7-June 21, 1581)	p. 1200
Italy: Florence-Pisa-Lucca (June 21-August 13, 1581)	p. 1224
Italy: Second stay at La Villa (August 14-September 12, 1581)	p. 1240
Italy: Return to Rome (September 12-October 15, 1581)	p. 1247
Italy and France: The return home (October 15-November 30, 1581)	p. 1257
Letters
To Antoine Duprat (August 24, 1562?)	p. 1275
To his father: On the death of La Boetie (1563?; published 1570)	p. 1276
To his father: Dedication of Montaigne's translation of Sebond (June 18, 1568)	p. 1289
To Henri de Mesmes: Dedicatory epistle to La Boetie's translation of Plutarch's 'Rules of Marriage' (April 30, 1570)	p. 1290
To Michel de L'Hopital: Dedicatory epistle to La Boetie's Latin 'Poems' (April 30, 1570)	p. 1292
Notice to the reader of La Boetie's translations (August 10, 1570)	p. 1294
To Louis de Lansac: Dedicatory epistle to La Boetie's translation of Xenophon's 'Oeconomicus (1570?)	p. 1295
To Paul de Foix: Dedicatory epistle to La Boetie's 'French Verses' (September 1, 1570)	p. 1297
To his wife: Dedicatory epistle to La Boetie's translation of Plutarch's 'Letter of Consolation to His Wife' (September 10, 1570)	p. 1300
To the Jurats of Bordeaux (May 21, 1582)	p. 1301
To Marshal de Matignon (October 30, 1582)	p. 1302
To Antoine Duprat (November 22, 1582)	p. 1302
To King Henry III: Letter of remonstrance from the Mayor and Jurats of Bordeaux (August 31, 1583)	p. 1303
To King Henry of Navarre: Letter of remonstrance from the Mayor and Jurats of Bordeaux (December 10, 1583)	p. 1308
To Marshal de Matignon (December 14, 1583)	p. 1309
To Marshal de Matignon (January 21, 1584)	p. 1311
To Claude Dupuy (April 23, 1584?)	p. 1311
To Marshal de Matignon (July 12, 1584?)	p. 1312
To Marshal de Matignon (August 19, 1584)	p. 1313
To the Jurats of Bordeaux (December 10, 1584)	p. 1314
To Marshal de Matignon (January 18, 1585)	p. 1314
To Marshal de Matignon (January 26, 1585)	p. 1316
To Marshal de Matignon (February 2, 1585)	p. 1317
To the Jurats of Bordeaux (February 8, 1585)	p. 1318
To Marshal de Matignon (February 9, 1585)	p. 1318
To Marshal de Matignon (February 12, 1585?)	p. 1320
To Marshal de Matignon (February 13, 1585)	p. 1321
To Marshal de Matignon (February, 1585?)	p. 1322
To Marshal de Matignon (May 22, 1585?)	p. 1323
To Marshal de Matignon (May 27, 1585)	p. 1327
To the Jurats of Bordeaux (July 30, 1585)	p. 1328
To the Jurats of Bordeaux (July 31, 1585)	p. 1329
To Marshal de Matignon (June 12, 1587?)	p. 1329
To Marshal de Matignon (February 16, 1588?)	p. 1330
To Madame Paulmier (1588?)	p. 1331
To Antoine Loisel: Inscription on a copy of the 1588 Essays (1588?)	p. 1332
To King Henry IV (January 18, 1590?)	p. 1332
To ... (March or May 10, 1590)	p. 1335
To King Henry IV (September 2, 1590?)	p. 1335
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