ralis_ of Raimond de Sebonde,
a Spanish philosopher of the fifteenth century; and now he occupied
himself in preparing for the press the writings of his dead friend
La Boetie. Love for his father and love for his friend were the two
passions of Montaigne's life. From 1571 to 1580 he dwelt in retreat,
in company with his books and his ideas, indulging his humour for
tranquil freedom of the mind. It was his custom to enrich the margins
of his books with notes, and his earliest essays may be regarded as
an extension of such notes; Plutarch and Seneca were, above all, his
favourites; afterwards, the volume which he read with most enjoyment,
and annotated most curiously, was that of his own life.

And, indeed, Montaigne's daily life, with outward monotony and
internal variety, was a pleasant miscellany on which to comment. He
was of a middle temperament, "between the jovial and the melancholic";
a lover of solitude, yet the reverse of morose; choosing bright
companions rather than sad; able to be silent, as the mood took him,
or to gossip; loyal and frank; a hater of hypocrisy and falsehood;
a despiser of empty ceremony; disposed to interpret all things to
the best; cheerful among his children; careless of exercising
authority; incapable of household management; trustful and kind
towards his neighbours; indulgent in his judgments, yet warm in his
admiration of old, heroic virtue. His health, which in boyhood had
been robust, was shaken in middle life by an internal malady. He
travelled in the hope of finding strength, visiting Germany,
Switzerland, Italy, Tyrol, and observing, with a serious amusement,
the varieties of men and manners. While still absent from France,
in 1581, he learned that he had been elected mayor of Bordeaux; he
hesitated in accepting an honourable but irksome public office; the
King permitted no dallying, and Montaigne obeyed. Two years later
the mayor was re-elected; it was a period of difficulty; a Catholic
and a Royalist, he had a heretic brother, and himself yielded to the
charm of Henri of Navarre; "for the Ghibelline I was a Guelph, for
the Guelph a Ghibelline." When, in 1585, pestilence raged in Bordeaux,
Montaigne's second period of office had almost expired; he quitted
the city, and the election of his successor took place in his absence.
His last years were brightened by the friendship--almost filial--of
Mlle. de Gournay, an ardent admirer, and afterwards editor, of the
_Essais_. In 1592 Mont