mn^er a Dogwood wttb /iRontatgne 



in his writings! It seems probable that 

 he played the interesting invalid's tune to 

 all the rough riders of those days when 

 they arrived at the chateau, as he certainly 

 did to the people of Bordeaux when he 

 was their mayor and a dire pestilence 

 struck them. He shied off to his country- 

 seat and nursed his own health. 



But from his undefended room he looked 

 forth upon the life around him, permitting 

 no detail to go by without scrutiny. He had 

 the sensitiveness of great genius to drafts 

 from the future, and he felt the coming 

 changes in science, literature, art, religion, 

 life — saw forward almost to Browning and 

 the agnostics, backward to the horizon. 

 And over all this space his mind was a 

 somewhat whimsical drag-net, with meshes 

 small enough for minnows and strong 

 enough for leviathan. 



Montaigne's life spanned the period 

 from 1533 to 1592, which, in French his- 

 tory, incloses as much song as war. He 

 was the contemporary of Ronsard, Reg- 

 nier, Olivier de Magny, Louise Labe, and 

 the 'Tleiade"— that hive of busy hum- 

 296 



