MONTAIGNE - MAN

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>MONTAIGNE</FONT><BR> THE SCEPTIC</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Man</B></FONT><P> <BLOCKQUOTE>"There is, in my opinion, not so much misery in us as emptiness, not so much malice as folly. We are not so full of evil as of inanity, nor so wretched as are base."<P> ("On Democritus and Heracleitus" 1.50)</BLOCKQUOTE> <FONT SIZE=4><B>EVERYMAN</B></FONT><BR> "Every man", Montaigne avers, "carries in himself the complete pattern of human nature." He cannot know every man. But in portraying himself with careful, patient and incessantly repeated strokes, he has cunningly painted the majority of mankind, and all the more successfully because he has so minutely dissected himself. By highlighting his personal foibles and individual peculiarities, he seems to open to us his most secret parts. Each one of us finds there a piece of ourselves.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>"The man who knows how to enjoy his existence as he ought has attained to an absolute perfection, like that of the gods. We seek other conditions because we do not understand the proper use of our own, and go out of ourselves because we do not know what is within us. So it is no good our mounting on stilts, for even on stilts we have to walk with our own legs; and sit we on the most exalted throne in the world it is our own bottom on which we sit."<P> (Book 3 Ch 13 "On Experience")</BLOCKQUOTE> <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>