longer I pore on it. I do nothing without gaiety. Perfeverance, and a too obftinate contention, darkens, ftupifies, and tires my judgment, My fight is therein confounded and diffipated. I muft withdraw it, and leave it to make new difcoveries, juft as, in order to judge rightly of the luftre of fcarlet, we are ordered to pafs it lightly with the eye, and to run it over at feveral fudden repeated views. If one book does not please me, I take another; but never meddle with any, except at those times when I begin to be weary of doing nothing, I do not much relish the writings of the moderns, beMontaigne precause I think the ancients fuller and more ferred the writfubftantial; neither am I fond of the ings of the ancients to the moGreek authors, my knowledge in that derns. language being too fuperficial to read them with delight. Among the books that are merely entertaining, I think thofe of the moderns, viz. Boccace's Decameron, * Rabelais, and the Bafia + of Johannes Secundus (if thefe may be ranged under that title) are worth reading. As to Amadis de Gaul, and fuch kind of writings, they had not the credit to take with me fo much as in my childifh years, What he thought of Ovid, in the decline of his life. Let me add, however rafh the confeffion may appear, that this old dull fancy of mine is now no longer tickled with Ariofto, nor even with honeft Ovid: his easy style, and his imaginations, with which I was formerly charmed, are fcarce of any entertainment to me now. I fpeak my mind freely of all things, nay, and of thofe that, perhaps, exceed my reach, and which I do I muft declare here, by the way, that no body better understood the copioufness and energy of the French language, and fo well found his account in it, as Kabelais. This, which I take to be a very important remark, I borrow from Rouffeau, one of the beft poets of this age. It was alfo undoubtedly known to La Fontaine, who has made a very good ufe of it. ↑ This is a collection of epigrams on the fubject of kiffing, by a Dutch author, of which there have been feveral editions, particularly one at Lyons, by Seb. Gryphius, in 1539, now become very scarce; which I do not mention to encourage another impreffion of them, for I have no great relish for any Latin poetry compofed by the moderns, not even for the poetry of Buchanan, Grotius, Heinfius, &c. I mean with re. gard to the verification. not not confider as being at all within my Iphere: and the opinion I give of them is to fhew the extent of my fight, and not the measure of its objects. When I find myfelf difgufted with the Axiochus of Plato*, as a performance which, with all due refpect to fuch an author, has no fpirit, I am not fure that my judgment is right. It is not fo conceited of itself as to fet up against the authority of fo many other famous judges of antiquity, whom it eftcems as its regents and mafters, and with whom it had rather be mistaken. In fuch a cafe it reproves and condemns itself, either for flopping at the outward bark for want of power to penetrate to the pith, or for confidering the thing by fome falfe light. It is contented with fecuring itfelf only from trouble and irregularity; and, as to its own weaknefs, it is fenfible of it, and frankly confefles it. It thinks it gives a juft interpretation by the appearances formed in its conception, but they are weak and imperfect. Moft of the fables of fop have feveral fenfes and meanings, of which the mythologifts chufe fome one that tallies with the fable, but, for the most part, 'tis only what presents itself at the first view, and is fuperficial, there being others more lively, efential, and internal, into which they have not been able to penetrate; and the cafe is the very fame with me. But, to proceed on my fubject: I always thought, that, a poetry, Virgil, Lucretius, Catullus, and Horace excel the reft by many degrees; whom he places and efpecially Virgil, in his Georgics, in the first clafs. which I efteem as the completeft work m poetry, in comparison with which it is easy to difcern fome pafage; of the Eneid, to which the author would have given a little more of the file, had he had leifure. The fifth book of the Eneid feems to me to be the most perfect. I am alfo fond of Lucan, and often read him, not fo much for the fake of the ftyle, as for his own worth, and the truth of his opinions and judgments. As for Terence, I think the delicacy and elegance of his Latin o admirably adapted to reprefent our paffions and manners to the The beft critics afcribe this dialogue not to Plato, but to fchines, a difciple of Socrates. H 4 The Latin poets, life, life, that our actions make me have recourfe to him every now and then; and, as often foever as I read him, I ftill difcover fome new grace and beauty. Lucretius not to be compared to Jefs Ariofto. Such as lived in the age near Virgil's were fcandalized that any fhould compare Lucretius to him. I am, indeed, of opinion, that the Virgil, and much comparifon is very unequal; yet I can fcarce fettle myfelf in this belief, when I am captivated with fome of thofe fine paffages in Lucretius. But, if they were fo piqued at this comparison, what would they have faid of the brutifh and barbarous ftupidity of thofe who, at this hour, compare Ariosto to him; and what would Ariofto himself say of it? O feclum infipiens et inficetum * ! Oh filly fenfelefs age! I think the Bad taste of thofe who compared Plautus to Te. rence. ancients had yet more reafon to complain of those who matched Plautus with Te rence, (the latter being much more of the gentleman) than Lucretius with Virgil. It makes much for the honour and preference of Terence, that the father of the Roman eloquence has him fo often in his mouth, the only one of his rank that he mentions, as does the fentence which the chief judge of Roman poetry has paffed upon the other, The comic poets of Montaigne's I have often obferved, that thofe of our time, who have taken upon them to write comedies, (as the Italians, who are very happy in dramatic compofitions) take in three or four arguments of thofe of Terence or Plautus to make one of theirs, and croud five or fix of time wanted in vention. • Catul. Epigram. xli. ver. 8. Horace, who says, in his Arte Poetica, ver. 270, &c. At noftri proavi Plautinos et numeros, et Laudavere fales, nimium patienter utrofque, Non dicam ftulte, mirati. And yet our fires with joy could Plautus hear ; Gay were his jefts, his numbers charm'd their ear; Boccace's Boccace's tales into one fingle comedy. That which makes them load themselves with fo much matter is the diffidence they have of being able to fupport themselves by their own merit. They must find out fome-body to lean upon, and, having not matter enough of their own to amufe us with, they fupply the defect with fome tale. But the cafe is quite contrary with our author *, the beauty and perfections of whofe ftyle make us lofe the appetite for his plot. His elegancy and delicacy captivate us in every scene, and he is fo pleafant throughout, Liquidus, puroque fimillimus amni†, Smoothly running like a cryftal ftream, and fo poffeffes the foul with his graces of diction, that we forget those of his fable. This very confideration draws ine on farther: I perceive that the good old poets avoided the affectation and purfuit not only of fantastic Spanish and Petrarchist flights, but even of the fofter and graver periods which have adorned all the poetry of the fucceeding ages. Yet there is no good judge who will condemn this in thofe ancients, and that does not incomparably more admire the equal fmoothness, and that perpetual fweetnefs and beauty which flourishes in the epigrams of Catullus, than all the ftings with which Martial has armed the tails of his. The reafon is the fame as I gave just now, and as Martial said of himself, in preface, lib. viii. Minus illi ingenio laborandum fuit, in cujus locum materia fuccefferat, "His fubject was fo fruitful, that he had "the lefs need for the exercife of his wit." The epigrams of Catullus make themselves fufficiently felt without being moved and difgufted: they have matter enough throughout to create laughter; they need not raife the laugh themselves. Martial's epigrams have need of foreign affistance; as they have the lefs wit, they must have the ⚫ Terence, who is in the fame degree as inferior to the Greeks as he is fuperior to the modern poets that Montaigne speaks of; for Terence has need fometimes of two Greek pieces to make up one Latin one. See the prologue to his Eunuch. + Hor. lib. ii. ep. 2. ver. 120. Paffionate Rant of Lovers. more more bulk; they mount on horseback because they are not ftrong enough to ftand on their own legs. Juft so, in our balls, thofe men of low degree who teach to dance, because they cannot reprefent the port and decency of our gentry, endeavour to recommend themfelyes by dangerous leaps, and other odd motions practifed by tumblers: and the ladies come off better in dances where there are feveral coupees and agitations of the body, than in fome other formal dances wherein they are only to move a natural pace, and to reprefent their ordinary grace and gefture. And fo I have feen excellent tumblers, dreffed in the cloaths which they wear every day, and with their ufual countenance, give us all the pleasure that their art is capable of, while their apprentices, not yet arrived to fuch a degree of perfection, are fain to meal their faces, to difguife themfelves, and to ufe wild motions and grimaces to make us laugh. This conception of mine is no where fo demonftrable Comparison be- as in the comparison of the Eneid and tween the Æneid Orlando Furiofo. The first we fee with and the Orlando expanded wings foaring aloft, and always ftretching to its point; while the latter Autters and hops from tale to tale, as from branch to branch, not venturing to truft its wings but in very fhort flights, and perching at every turn, left its breath and ftrength fhould fail it. Furiofo of Ari ofto. Excurfufque breves tentat *. Those therefore, as to fubjects of this kind, are the authors that please me best. As to my other reading, which mixes a little more profit Books of more with pleasure,and from whence I learn how Solidity, by which to regulate my opinions and humours; the Montaigne books which I apply to, for this purpose, learnt to reguJate his opinion. are Plutarch (fince he is tranflated into French) and Seneca: they are both remarkably adapted to my temper, forafmuch as the knowledge which I there feek is communicated in loofe pieces that are Georg. lib. iv. ver. 194, not |