* On Solitude, Michel de Montaigne (Penguin Books, 1991, trans. M. A. Screech)
This is the first time I have read Montaigne, a little surprising since he is the originator of the essay form. I am not sure whether I will appreciate him…
Later: Montaigne’s essays are just not engaging me. But I am struck by the way he is engages in dialog with scholars and others who have come before. I don’t really resonate with the topics and language in play, but it would be interesting for me to try to do something similar with people who have influenced me.
E1: On Solitude
This eponymous essay Is written from the vantage point of a man in the “tail-end of life,” and explores the virtues of solitude. I was struck by how much, and how widely, he quotes from the classical literature. Hoarce, Seneca, Cicero, Erasamus, Socrates. The general theme is about the advisability and wisdom of withdrawing from public life, and the vices attendant in that and in the majority of people. Instead, he advocates turning inward, and cultivating one’s own happiness and virtue in a what seems to me a stoic fashion. This essay did not, in general speak to me, though there were a couple of quotes I liked.
“We have lived quite enough for others; let us live at least this tail-end of life for ourselves. Let us bring our thoughts and reflections back to ourselves and to our own well-being”
–ibid. On Solitude, p. 9
“If a hangover came before we got drunk we would see that we never drank to excess: but pleasure, to deceive us, walks in front and hides her train.
–ibid. On Solitude, p. 9
On Books
TBD
On the Power of the Imagination
TBD
On Sadness
TBD
On Constancy
TBD
On Fear
TBD
How Our Mind Tangles Itself Up
TBD
On Conscience
TBD
On Anger
TBD
On Virtue
TBD
On Sleep
TBD
On the Length of Life
TBD
How we Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing
TBD
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