'Unber a 2)OGWoob witb 

 fIDontaigne 



He puts his foot into heresies tenderly, as a cat 

 in water, and pulls it out again, and still something 

 unanswered delays him. — John Earle. 



GENIUS is the true fountain of youth. 

 We who but touch it with finger-tips 

 at utmost stretch feel its renewing thrill 

 come to our centers of enjoyment, a sort of 

 electrical shock from an exhaustless stor- 

 age battery, centuries distant it may be, 

 set in the world by divine wisdom or di- 

 vine accident. Once or twice in an age 

 comes a man or a woman who has this 

 perennial gift, this ageless influence, and 

 imbues a book with it. One of the best- 

 endowed of these was Michel, Seigneur de 

 Montaigne, who in 1580 gave to the 

 printer and to immortahty the celebrated 

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