aigne died, when midway in his sixtieth year.

The first two books of the _Essais_ were published by their author
in 1580; in 1588 they appeared in an augmented text, with the addition
of the third book. The text superintended by Mlle. de Gournay, based
upon a revised and enlarged copy left by Montaigne, is of the year
1595.

The unity of the book, which makes no pretence to unity, may be found
in the fact that all its topics are concerned with a common
subject--the nature of man; that the writer accepts himself as the
example of humanity most open to his observation; and that the same
tranquil, yet insatiable curiosity is everywhere present. Man, as
conceived by Montaigne, is of all creatures the most variable,
unstable, inconstant. The species includes the saint and the brute,
the hero and the craven, while between the extremes lies the average
man, who may be anything that nature, custom, or circumstances make
him. And as the species varies indefinitely, so each individual varies
endlessly from himself: his conscience controls his temperament; his
temperament betrays his conscience; external events transform him
from what he was. Do we seek to establish our moral being upon the
rock of philosophical dogma? The rock gives way under our feet, and
scatters as if sand. Such truth as we can attain by reason is relative
truth; let us pass through knowledge to a wise acceptance of our
ignorance; let us be contented with the probabilities which are all
that our reason can attain. The truths of conduct, as far as they
are ascertainable, were known long since to the ancient moralists.
Can any virtue surpass the old Roman virtue? We believe in God,
although we know little about His nature or His operations; and why
should we disbelieve in Christianity, which happens to be part of
the system of things under which we are born? But why, also, should
we pay such a compliment to opinions different from our own as to
burn a heretic because he prefers the Pope of Geneva to the Pope of
Rome? Let each of us ask himself, "Que sais-je?"--"What do I really
know?" and the answer will serve to temper our zeal.

While Montaigne thus saps our confidence in the conclusions of the
intellect, when they pass beyond a narrow bound, he pays a homage
to the force of will; his admiration for the heroic men of Plutarch
is ardent. An Epicurean by temperament, he is a Stoic through his
imagination; but for us and for himself, who are no heroes, the
a