Free The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne

(plus)
    [B] and ’88: the text of 1588
    [C] the text of the edition being prepared by Montaigne when he died, 1592
    ’95: text of the 1595 posthumous printed edition
    In the notes there is given a selection of variant readings, including most abandoned in 1588 and many from the printed posthumous edition of 1595.
    By far the most scholarly account of the text is that given in R. A. Sayce,
The Essays of Montaigne: A Critical Exploration
, 1972, Chapter 2, ‘The Text of the
Essays’
.

Appendices
     
I
     
    Montaigne’s dedication of his translation of Raymond Sebond’s
Natural Theology
to his father
.

    TO MY LORD, MY LORD OF MONTAIGNE

    My Lord, following the task you gave me last year at Montaigne, I have tailored and dressed with my hand a garment in the French style for Raymond Sebond, the great Spanish Theologian and Philosopher, divesting him (in so far as in me lay) of his uncouth bearing and of that barbarous stance that you were the first to perceive: so that, in my opinion, he now has sufficient style and polish to present himself in good company.
    It may well be that delicate and discriminating people may notice here some Gascon usages or turns of phrase: that should make them all the more ashamed at having neglectfully allowed a march to be stolen on them by a man who is an apprentice and quite unsuited to the task.
    It is, my Lord, right that it should appear and grow in credit beneath your name, since it is to you that it owes whatever amendment or reformation it now enjoys.
    And yet I believe that if you would be pleased to reckon accounts with him, it will be you who will owe him more: in exchange for his excellent and most religious arguments, for his conceptions lofty and as though divine, you, for your part, have brought only words and language – a merchandise so base and vile that who has most is perhaps worth least.
    My Lord, I beg God that he may grant you a most long and a most happy life.
From Paris: this 18th of June, 1568.
Your most humble and obedient son,
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE .
II
     
    Montaigne’s translation and adaptation of the Prologus of Raymond Sebond
.

    Book of the Creatures of Raymond Sebond.
    Translated from the Latin into French.
    Preface of the Author.

    To the praise and glory of the most high and glorious Trinity, of the Virgin Mary, and of all the heavenly Court: in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the profit of all Christians, there follows the doctrine of the Book of the Creatures (or, Book of Nature): a doctrine of Man, proper to Man insofar as he is Man: a doctrine suitable, natural and useful to every man, by which he is enlightened into knowing himself, his Creator, and almost everything to which he is bound as Man: a doctrine containing the rule of Nature, by which also each Man is instructed in what he is naturally bound towards God and his neighbour: and not only instructed but moved and incited to do this, of himself, by love and a joyful will.
    In addition this science teaches every one to see clearly, without difficulty or toil, truth insofar as it is possible for natural reason, concerning knowledge of God and of himself and of what he has need for his salvation and to reach life eternal; it affords him access to understanding what is prescribed and commanded in Holy Scripture, and delivers the human spirit from many doubts, making it consent firmly to what Scripture contains concerning knowledge of God and of oneself.
    In this book the ancient errors of the pagans and the unbelieving philosophers are revealed and by its doctrine the Catholic Faith is defended and made known: every sect which opposes it is uncovered and condemned as false and lying.
    That is why, in this decline and last days of the World it is necessary that Christians should stiffen themselves, arm themselves and assure themselves within that Faith so as to confront those who fight against it, to protect themselves from being seduced and, if needs be, joyfully to die for it.
    Moreover this