TUn&er a BogwooD wftb Montaigne 



indiscriminate warfare. His method of 

 composition, however, indicates a natural 

 origin in his peculiarities of character and 

 a development by reason of close and 

 curious self-study. The entire man is in 

 his work, stalking about unreservedly, 

 naked or clothed, as the chance caught 

 him, at many points too frankly natural; 

 in this regard very like and very unlike 

 the Greek masters, notably Theocritus. 

 Emerson says : 



Montaigne is the frankest and honestest of all 

 writers. His French freedom runs into grossness ; 

 but he has anticipated all censure by the bounty 

 of his own confessions. 



This was a part of his method, a sort of 

 pleading guilty with a most fascinating 

 tumble upon the mercy of the court. 

 Guile it was, but the air of it how guileless ! 

 He was a perfect diplomat. His chateau 

 stood ostentatiously open and unguarded 

 during a time of pillage and protracted 

 lawlessness, he being a privileged person 

 on account of his clever suavity and a 

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