iSXn^cv a H)ogwoob witb jflDontaigne 



personal intercourse with men of every 

 degree furnished him rich materials for his 

 work. It might be Amyot, grand almoner 

 of France under Charles IX, told him an 

 anecdote of the Due de Guise at the siege 

 of Rouen, or it might be a sailor, just re- 

 turned from newly discovered America, 

 who described the savages to him ; a ser- 

 vant did this, or Cicero had said that: it 

 was all material and welcome to his pot of 

 galimafree. 



There was, after all, this great lack in 

 the taste which governed Montaigne's in- 

 tellectual and moral activities : he felt little 

 of what may be called nature's purple at- 

 mosphere ; romance scarcely appealed at 

 all to his mind, and still less did the mani- 

 fold beauties of landscape, birds, flowers, 

 brooks, clouds, horizons affect him. He 

 glanced forth casually, and remarked : 

 " Touts nos efforts ne peuvent seulement 

 arriver a representer le nid du moindre 

 oyselet, sa contexture, sa beaulte, et 

 I'utilite de son usage; non la tissure de la 

 chestifve araignee." {" All our efforts can- 

 not reach to reproducing the nest of the 

 300 



