Montaigne's Essays

I have been reading recently from Michel de Montaigne's Essays. Montaigne was born near Bordeaux, France, in 1533. His parents were wealthy and of high standing, but unusually humble (his Godparents and nurse were all peasants). He was taught Latin at an early age by teachers who did not speak French. He did not learn to speak French until he was six, but was fluent in Latin as a toddler. His life was a very exciting one, as he was childhood friends with the boy who would become King Henry IV of France. Even still, Montaigne's contribution to the world came through a series of introspective analyses.

Montaigne decided to write about himself. He maintained that better than politics, poetics, current affairs, or even our households, what each of us know best is ourselves. Yet most of us do not take advantage of the opportunity afforded us by our closeness to ourselves. We live with ourselves with a unique intimacy, yet few of us ever know ourselves. Socrates, who was Montaigne's hero and exemplar, insisted that knowing oneself was the hardest thing to do, and also the most important.

Why do we resist knowing ourselves? Perhaps because we don't want to. We are unwilling to admit that we are no more beautiful, no wiser, no richer or more successful than we actually are. Concerning ourselves, we are steeped in illusions. What we wish we were is more important than what we are, and in fact we don't want to face what we are, because doing so would mean accepting that we are not what we would like to be.

Montaigne related to himself in a very adept way. This did not mean that he didn't strive to be better, to be more moderate, prudent, and kind. No one should ever stop striving for these qualities. But he was able to forgive himself for his failures, to accept himself. Most of all, he forgave himself for being human. This was much harder for him than it seemed. As humans, we are animals as well as spiritual creatures; but we deny the animal in us, or we deny the spiritual- which is equally foolish. Most of all we find it difficult to simply live. We think we must always be busy at something in order to validate our existence. But life itself is sufficient justification.

Of this, Montaigne said:

"We are great fools. 'He has spent his life in idleness,' we say; 'I have done nothing today.' What, have you not lived? That is not only the fundamental but the most illustrious of your occupations. 'If I had been placed in a position to manage great affairs, I would have shown what I could do.' Have you been able to think out and manage your own life? You have done the greatest task of all... Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately."

What does Montaigne mean by "live appropriately?" Moderately, sanely, wisely, enjoying all things, but nothing too much, eating, drinking, making love, but also conversing, reading, and thinking well. Montaigne forgave himself for his humanity, and he forgave all, for they too were human. At the end of his essays is a literary gift to us all:

"It is an absolute perfection and virtually divine to know how to enjoy your being. We seek other conditions because we do not understand the use of our own, and go outside of ourselves because we do not know well enough what it is like inside. Yet there is no use our mounting on stilts, for on stilts we must still walk on our own legs. And on the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting on our own behind."