Page:Essays, Vol 4 (Ives, 1925).pdf/56
44 ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE
There is nothing that signifies effort, nothing that drags; every part moves on at the same pace. (c) Contextus totus oirilis est, non sunt circa flosculos occupati.’ (6) It is not an effeminate eloquence and merely faultless: it is sinewy and solid, and does not so much please as it fills full and en- trances the mind, and entrances most the strongest minds, When I behold those noble modes of expression, so vivid, so profound, I do not say this is speaking nghtly, I say it is thinking rightly. It is the vivacity of the imagination which exalts and inflates the words. (c) Pectws est guod disertum facit.* (6) To these, mere insight was one with language, and large conceptions with appropriate words.* Their painting is guided not so much by manual dexterity as by having the object more vividly imprinted on the soul. Gallus ‘ speaks simply because he thinks simply. Horace is not satisfied with a superficial expression: it would wrong him; he looks more clearly and further into things; his mind breaks into and ransacks the whole storehouse of words and figures of speech to express itself; and he must have them out of the ordinary, as his conception is out of the ordinary. Plutarch says that he discerned the Latin language by means of things; * here it is the same: the meaning illuminates and creates the words; they are not of wind but of flesh and bone. (c) They express more than they utter. (4) Weak wits also feel something resembling this; for in Italy, in common talk I said what I wished to say; but in serious conversation I
1 Their writing is of a manly texture; they were not concerned about florid ornaments. — Seneca, Epistle 33. Seneca’s text reads: Nom fuerunt circa flosculos occupati; totus contextus idlorum virilis est.
. * It is the understanding that makes a man eloquent. — Quintilian,
“Has.
® Nos gens appellent jugement langage, et beaux mots les pleines con- ceptions.
“ In the sixteenth century, six clegies by Maximianus (fifth century) were published and were attributed to Cornelius Gallus. Montaigne quotes them ten times.
§ “Now in my latter time,” he says, “I began to take my Latin books in my hand. And thereby a strange thing to tell you, but yet true: | learned not, nor understood matters so much by the words, as I came to understand the words by common experience and knowledge I had in things.” — Plutarch, Life of Demasthenes (North's English ver- sion of Amyot’s French translation).