The Press.
London, England, 1858-01-02 00:00:00

in the true modern sense. He had not, like Voltaire anti
his accomplice,, a secret, unacknowledged end in view. To
have engaged in a conspiracy against Christianity, and
committed all the unscrupulous acts which a conspiracy
implies, would have seemed shocking to this honest Gaston
gentleman—let us venture to say " honest," despite a
certain tendency to casuistry, a certain proneness to com-
promise and concession : a man may be honest in this in-
complete world, and not rigid.
But Montaigne was no Believer, in the proper sense of
the word, nor inclined to call for help to his unbelief. In
his time, religion had naurpe I too great a control over
humanity—extended its authority too tar, and in the wrong
direction. He felt inclined to shake it off, in order to be
more tree in his ants and thoughts. His objection was
not so much to Catholicism, with its mysteries and con.
tempt of the human understanding, as to spiritualism in
general, with its enthusiasm and contempt of human flesh.
Protestantism to him was no promise ; it was an ad litional
element of disorder and discomfort. The nisrt3rs who
would rather be burned than recant, who set their sonls,
the existence of which might be made doubtful by a
syllogism, above their bodies (unmistakeable tenements of
pain and pleasure )—these men, who went singing to the
stake, and fixed sorrowful but forgiving eyes on their perse-
cutors, were almost more detestable to Montaigne than the
persecutors themselves. He pitied their sufferings, but
was angry with the unreasonable strength of their con-
victions.

What the author means by " a Sceptic in the
" true modern sense" is not ve►y clear, and
we cannot accept his peremptory decisions on
the aims of Montaigne. There has always
been a class of esoterical Romanists who like
to play with philosophy. They reason them-
selves, in a fashion of their own, into discard-
ing the use of reason in religion : they deny
that any standard of objective truth can be
discovered, and they tolerate on the one side
the assumed infallibility of their Church, and
on the other hand they have a sympathy with
the superstitions of the vulgar. They are a
very dangerous class of minds, and servo no
useful ends. They are no checks on the
bigotry of the priest, although they may sap
the convictions of the earnest in religious
worship. They sneer at Protestantism as
" fanaticism," and have no strong belief in
philosophy. Montaigne had something in
common with that class of minds, and we can-
not think that he proposed to himself any dis-
tinct moral purpose.
Space, however, would be wanted for an ade-
quate characterisation of Montaigne. What-
ever we may think of his philosophy, his lite-
rary merits are indubitable. He was, and
will continue to be, a charming writer; his
temper was genial, his tone familiar, and his
eloquence natural. He has a niche to him-
self in the Temple of Fame, and there are many
for whom this biography of him will have much
interest. But to enjoy it thoroughly we must
first be familiar• with the writings of Mon-
taigne.

Cambridge Essays. 1857. Contributed by
Members of the University. London :
J. W. Parker and Son.
ONE of the chief objects, if we remember
right, which the projectors of this series of
essays set before themselves was the libera-
tion of the " Essay " proper from the inappro-
priate and injurious trammels with which the
custom of periodical literature had encircled it.
The papers in the leading quarterlies were still
in strictness supposed to be reviews of books ;
and the mischief resulting from this literary
fiction was twofold. In the first place, able
men, who might happen to possess uncommon
knowledge, and to have arrived at novel con-
clusions upon various important subjects,
were precluded from giving their reflections
to the world till other people should have
written books upon them first. Hence, se-
condly, it arose that literary men or politicians,
growing impatient of protracted silence, would
seek to publish their notions upon the slen-
derest possible pretence, and would rake up
works written several years previously, and
not always of any importance then, to place at
the head of their article. Still, however, the
old tradition haunted them: they must by
some means or another bring their observa-
tioes within the scope of the work given forth
as their text-book. The inevitable effect of
this was to hamper them at every turn, and to
impart a conventional and hackneyed air to
their contributions which was not their own
fault. A third and perhaps still more mis-
ohievous result of the system was this,—that
pure criticism was thereby brought into cell-