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tury, it is amazing to review the range 

 and variety of Montaigne's facts. He dug 

 at the root of everything in sight — with a 

 primitive hoe, to be sure ; and the bulbs he 

 unearthed have been but sHghtly modified 

 by three centuries of tireless cultivation. It 

 is his way of w^histling and soHloquizing 

 while at work, however, that most capti- 

 vates us ; there his humor breaks forth, and 

 there his gentle virility flowers ; we look 

 ahead, while deep in his philosophy, for the 

 next shallowing and rippling of the stream, 

 — almost any figure will serve in speak- 

 inofof the^Essais," — and are not in the least 

 surprised no matter what comes to the 

 surface; for his materials, although they 

 appear hopelessly incongruous, somehow 

 fall together and generate beautiful affini- 

 ties, or some filament of delicious sophistry 

 joins them as a spider's web links drops of 

 dew and dangling flies. 



In the forty-sixth essay of the first book 

 we have a peep at the method used by 

 Montaigne in collecting his materials. It 

 is not an essay, but the outline of one, a 

 succession. of items with running remarks 

 294 



