Xllnber a Bogwoot) witb /IDontatgne 



stone was chosen that had not an attrac- 

 tive side to be turned outward. He had 

 taste, even when coarseness overcame him. 



It might seem, to a careless onlooker, 

 that an essay, like the best of Montaigne's, 

 could be just as well written in a dozen 

 different ways. The experiment has been 

 often tried, only with the result of testify- 

 ing against the main theory. Lamb 

 caught Montaigne's trick of structure in a 

 remarkable degree ; but compare Theo- 

 phile Gautier's essays with Montaigne's, 

 and note the difference. The materials 

 most searched for by Gautier and his dis- 

 ciples were words and the phrase ; splen- 

 dor of diction, kaleidoscopic phrase-setting, 

 the paragraph turned with Giotto's sweep 

 of perfection — these were of first dignity in 

 their esteem ; but the old essayist bent his 

 genius hard upon the things he had in 

 mind to say, and it was his steadfastness 

 in concentrating his reason, while amusing 

 himself with crystals of fact, that gave 

 form to his work. 



Considering the state of human know- 

 ledge at the middle of the sixteenth cen- 

 293 



