To the reader
12th June 1580
Reader, thou hast here an honest book; it doth at the outset forewarn thee that, in contriving the same, I have proposed to myself no other than a domestic and private end: I have had no consideration at all either to thy service or to my glory. My powers are not capable of any such design. I have dedicated it to the particular commodity of my kinsfolk and friends, so that, having lost me (which they must do shortly), they may therein recover some traits of my conditions and humours, and by that means preserve more whole, and more life-like, the knowledge they had of me. Had my intention been to seek the world’s favour, I should surely have adorned myself with borrowed beauties: I desire therein to be viewed as I appear in mine own genuine, simple, and ordinary manner, without study and artifice: for it is myself I paint. My defects are therein to be read to the life, and any imperfections are my natural form, so far as public reverence hath permitted me. If I had lived among those nations, which (they say) yet dwell under the sweet liberty of nature’s primitive laws, I assure thee I would most willingly have painted myself quite fully and quite naked. Thus, reader, myself am the matter of my book: there’s no reason thou shouldst employ thy leisure about so frivolous and vain a subject. Therefore farewell.
(1580)
Montaigne, Michel de. “To the reader.” Trans. Charles Cotton. 1580. Quotidiana. Ed. Patrick Madden. 26 Dec 2006. 27 Mar 2023 <http://essays.quotidiana.org/montaigne/to_the_reader/>.
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Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Bacon, Francis (1561-1626)
Barbauld, Anna Laetitia (1743-1825)
Barbellion, W. N. P. (1889-1919)
Belloc, Hilaire (1870-1953)
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Bird, Isabella (1831-1904)
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Gerould, Katharine Fullerton (1879-1944)
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Goldsmith, Oliver (1735-1774)
Guiney, Louise Imogen (1861-1920)
Hamilton, Gail (1838-1896)
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Haywood, Eliza (1693-1756)
Hazlitt, William (1778-1830)
Howell, James (1594-1666)
Howells, William Dean (1837-1920)
Hume, David (1711-1776)
Hunt, Leigh (1784-1859)
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825-1895)
Hyde, Edward (1609-1674)
Jacks, L. P. (1860-1955)
Jacobs, Harriet (1813-1897)
Jerome, Jerome K. (1859-1927)
Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Kenko, Yoshida (1283-1350)
Kirkland, Caroline (1801-1864)
Lamb, Charles (1775-1834)
Lamb, Mary (1764-1847)
Landor, Walter Savage (1775-1864)
Lee, Vernon (1856-1935)
Marquis, Don (1878-1937)
Martin, Edward Sanford (1856-1939)
Martineau, Harriet (1802-1876)
Meynell, Alice (1847-1922)
Milne, A. A. (1882-1956)
Montaigne, Michel de (1533-1592)
More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Morley, Christopher (1890-1957)
Morris, Elisabeth (1870-1964)
Osler, William (1849-1919)
Plato, Ann (1820-?)
Repplier, Agnes (1855-1950)
Rhys, Grace Little (1865-1929)
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (4-65)
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Steele, Richard (1672-1729)
Stein, Edith (1891-1942)
Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850-1894)
Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Temple, William (1628-1699)
Tomlinson, H. M. (1873-1958)
Twain, Mark (1835-1910)
Wharton, Edith (-)
Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)
Zitkala-Ša (1876-1938)
Chronological
Wharton, Edith (-)
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (4-65)
Kenko, Yoshida (1283-1350)
Montaigne, Michel de (1533-1592)
Bacon, Francis (1561-1626)
Clinton, Elizabeth (1575-1638)
Cornwallis, William (1579-1614)
Howell, James (1594-1666)
Felltham, Owen (1602-1668)
Browne, Thomas (1605-1682)
Hyde, Edward (1609-1674)
Cowley, Abraham (1618-1667)
Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673)
Culpeper, Thomas (1626-1697)
Temple, William (1628-1699)
Chudleigh, Mary (1656-1710)
Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)
Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Steele, Richard (1672-1729)
Haywood, Eliza (1693-1756)
Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Hume, David (1711-1776)
Cowper, William (1731-1800)
Goldsmith, Oliver (1735-1774)
Barbauld, Anna Laetitia (1743-1825)
More, Hannah (1745-1833)
Burney, Fanny (1752-1840)
Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)
Lamb, Mary (1764-1847)
Edgeworth, Maria (1767-1849)
Lamb, Charles (1775-1834)
Landor, Walter Savage (1775-1864)
Hazlitt, William (1778-1830)
Colton, Charles (1780-1832)
Hunt, Leigh (1784-1859)
De Quincey, Thomas (1785-1859)
Kirkland, Caroline (1801-1864)
Martineau, Harriet (1802-1876)
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)
Fuller, Margaret (1810-1850)
Cooper, Susan Fenimore (1813-1894)
Jacobs, Harriet (1813-1897)
Plato, Ann (1820-?)
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825-1895)
Smith, Alexander (1830-1867)
Bird, Isabella (1831-1904)
Twain, Mark (1835-1910)
Howells, William Dean (1837-1920)
Hamilton, Gail (1838-1896)
Meynell, Alice (1847-1922)
Osler, William (1849-1919)
Harrison, Jane Ellen (1850-1928)
Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850-1894)
Repplier, Agnes (1855-1950)
Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939)
Lee, Vernon (1856-1935)
Martin, Edward Sanford (1856-1939)
Cooper, Anna Julia (1858-1964)
Jerome, Jerome K. (1859-1927)
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1860-1935)
Jacks, L. P. (1860-1955)
Guiney, Louise Imogen (1861-1920)
Benson, Arthur (1862-1925)
Bly, Nellie (1864-1922)
Far, Sui Sin (1865-1914)
Rhys, Grace Little (1865-1929)
Belloc, Hilaire (1870-1953)
Morris, Elisabeth (1870-1964)
Tomlinson, H. M. (1873-1958)
Chesterton, G. K. (1874-1936)
Zitkala-Ša (1876-1938)
Marquis, Don (1878-1937)
Gerould, Katharine Fullerton (1879-1944)
Milne, A. A. (1882-1956)
Eliot, T. S. (1888-1965)
Barbellion, W. N. P. (1889-1919)
Morley, Christopher (1890-1957)
Stein, Edith (1891-1942)
Women
Barbauld, Anna Laetitia (1743-1825) Bird, Isabella (1831-1904) Bly, Nellie (1864-1922) Burney, Fanny (1752-1840) Cavendish, Margaret (1623-1673) Chudleigh, Mary (1656-1710) Clinton, Elizabeth (1575-1638) Cooper, Anna Julia (1858-1964) Cooper, Susan Fenimore (1813-1894) Edgeworth, Maria (1767-1849) Far, Sui Sin (1865-1914) Fuller, Margaret (1810-1850) Gerould, Katharine Fullerton (1879-1944) Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1860-1935) Guiney, Louise Imogen (1861-1920) Hamilton, Gail (1838-1896) Harrison, Jane Ellen (1850-1928) Haywood, Eliza (1693-1756) Jacobs, Harriet (1813-1897) Kirkland, Caroline (1801-1864) Lamb, Mary (1764-1847) Lee, Vernon (1856-1935) Martineau, Harriet (1802-1876) Meynell, Alice (1847-1922) More, Hannah (1745-1833) Morris, Elisabeth (1870-1964) Plato, Ann (1820-?) Repplier, Agnes (1855-1950) Rhys, Grace Little (1865-1929) Stein, Edith (1891-1942) Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797) Zitkala-Ša (1876-1938)
Essays
by Michel de Montaigne
Against idleness
All things have their season
Of anger
Of the battle of Dreux
Of cannibals
The ceremony of the interview of princes
Of coaches
Of constancy
Cowardice, the mother of cruelty
Of the custom of wearing clothes
Of the education of children
Of experience
Of the force of imagination
That the hour of parley is dangerous
Of idleness
Of the inconstancy of our actions
Of liars
Of a monstrous child
Of not communicating one’s honour
Not to counterfeit being sick
Of one defect in our government
Of the parsimony of the ancients
Of pedantry
Of posting
Of prayers
Of the punishment of cowardice
Of quick or slow speech
Of repentance
Of the Roman grandeur
Of a saying of Caesar
Of sleep
Of smells
Of sumptuary laws
That a man is soberly to judge of the divine ordinances
That men are justly punished for being obstinate in the defence of a fort that is not in reason to be defended
That men by various ways arrive at the same end
That men should not judge of our happiness till after our death
That our mind hinders itself
That the intention is judge of our actions
That the profit of one man is the damage of another
That the soul expends its passions upon false objects, where the true are wanting
That to study philosophy is to learn to die
That we are to avoid pleasures, even at the expense of life
That we laugh and cry for the same thing
Of thumbs
Tomorrow’s a new day
To the reader
Use makes perfect
Of the vanity of words
That we taste nothing pure
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