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ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE

let us, who, on the other hand, are here seeking to fashion, not a grammarian or a logician, but a gentleman, leave them to waste their time; our concern is elsewhere. Let our pupil but be well supplied with things, and words will follow only too freely: he will draw them on, if they refuse to follow. I hear some people apologise for not being able to express themselves, and they have the air of having their heads full of fine things which, for lack of an eloquent tongue, can not be brought forth: ’t is a delusion. Do you know how it is, in my opinion? They are shadows that fall upon their minds from some shapeless ideas which they can not disentangle and clarify inwardly, and consequently can not produce outwardly. They do not as yet understand themselves; and as you watch them a little, stammering on the point of giving birth, you conclude that their labour is not at the stage of delivery, but of conception, and that they are still simply nourishing this imperfect embryo. For my part, I maintain, (c) and Socrates prescribes, (a) that he who has in his mind a vivid and distinct idea should bring it forth, either in bergamesque, or by gestures if he be dumb.

Verbaque prævisam rem non invita sequentur.[1]

And as this one said no less poetically in his prose, cum res animum occupavere, verba ambiunt.[2] (c) And this other: Ipsæ res verba rapiunt.[3] (a) He knows not ablative, conjunctive, substantive, or grammar; neither does his servant, or a fishwoman of the Petit Pont; yet they will give you your fill of talk, and will perchance be as little embarrassed by the rules of their language as the best master of arts in France. He knows not rhetoric, nor how, by way of preface, to capture the gentle reader’s good-will; nor does he care to know. In truth, all this fine painting is readily eclipsed by the brilliancy of a simple, artless truth; these refinements serve only to amuse the vulgar herd, who are incapable of swal-

  1. ↑ If matter be clearly discerned, the words will follow unhesitatingly. — Horace, Ars Poetica, 311.
  2. ↑ When a matter occupies the mind, words offer themselves for your choice. — Seneca, Controversiæ, III (Proæmium).
  3. ↑ The subject itself seizes upon words. — Cicero, De Fin., III, 5.
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