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8 ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE

shall have most exhilarated and gladdened the greater num- ber of them.’ (4) Formerly I used to mark dull and gloomy days as unusual; these are now the usual ones for me, the unusual are those that are fine and cloudless. I am ready to jump for joy as for an unwonted blessing when nothing pains me. If I try to please,* I can scarcely now draw a poor smile from this wretched body. I make merry merely in fancy and in waking dreams, to drive away by cunning the pen- siveness of old age; but it is certain that this needs another remedy than such dreams; this is a feeble struggle of art against nature. It is great foolishness to prolong and antici- pate human disadvantages as every one does; I like better to be old less long than to be old before I am so;* I seize upon the slightest opportunities for enjoyment that I can meet with. I know well by hearsay many kinds of wise pleasures, strong and highly praised; but belief in these has not enough power over me to give me an appetite for them. (c) I donot so much want them to be lofty and magnificent and proud, as delicious and easy and near at hand; 2 na- ‘ura discedimus; populo nos damus, nullius rei bono auctori (6) My philosophy is of action, of natural and immediate practice, little of conceptions; would I could take pleasure in playing with nuts or with a top!

Non ponebat enim rumores ante salutem.®

Pleasure is a quality of little ambition; it thinks itself

rich enough in itself without the prize of fame being added, and prefers to be in the shade. A young man ought to be whipped who should occupy himself in discovering the taste of wines and sauces; there is nothing that I have less known and less value; to-day I am learning it. I am greatly ashamed of this, but what can I do about it? I am even more ashamed and vexed by the occasions that drive me to it. It is for us to dream and idle, and for the youthful to

1 See Plato, Laws, book IT. 2 Que je me chatoutlie.

  • See Cicero, De Senectute, X. Montaigne quoted this passage, in

Latin, in Book II, chap. ro (Vol. II, p. 145).

4 We forsake nature; we give ourselves to the people, who are in no wise good guides. — Seneca, Epistle 99.

  • He did not place popular rumours before the safety of the State, —

Ennius, in Cicero, De Of, I, 24.

Gor gle

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