The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-06-16

spectators to sit out mysteries that took
weeks in the performance, was the GER
tain forerunner of great development
of this class of literature. The gradual
disuse of the allegorical fashion of love
poetry promised something more personal
and genuine in this direction, as in others
the discovery of new countries promoted
a general spirit of adventure and inquiry
In intellectual as well as commercial
matters; the invention of printing gave
an otherwise impossible opportunity to
this spirit, and, lastly, the great religious
revolution of which Erasmus was the
forerunner and Luther the author. gave
the ampleSt exercise to mems power of
speaking and writing. From the very
first the reformers fought the battle of
the Vernacular against the learned
tongues, both as a matter of religious be-
lief and of worldly prudence. for it was
by the use of the Vernacular that they
gained adherents. In France especially
the literary influence of the reformation
was immense. and ii would hardly be too
much to say that the Psalms" of Marot
and the institutions" of Calvin set for
the first time the example of works des-
tined TO exercise a wide popular influence
In French verse and in French prose-
Saintsbury.
For whence comes the interest we take
In all these personges and what is its true
nature? Montaigne will tell us it is that
every man carries in his own person the
model OF the human condition. The lines
are Juvenals, and without doubt Mon
taigne is sufficiently nourished on Latin
his book is sufficiently that of a human
ist,' or even ii may be of a pendant for
one to suspect him of having borrowed
the aDhorism from the Latin satirist.
This great reader is a great pilferer. and
he has not always indicated his larcenies.
rs If he feared in truth that were he to
have done so there would remain nothing
of his entire book y very useless pre-
caution. but an almost vainer fear. Were
the "Essais'' only a collection, or, if
ric ctr a
chaplet of quotations. that would not pre-
vent them being all that they are in the
history of our literature; the first book
In which a man formed the project of de-
plotting himself considering himself as an
example of average humanity. and of en-
riching the natural history of humanity
with the discoveries he made in his OWN
person.-Ferdinand Brunetiere.
Montaigne was born at a chateau in
Perigord in the year 1888. His father.
whom Montague always remembered
with affectionate reverence, was a man
of original ideas. He intrusted the infant
to the care of peasants, wishing to attach
him to the people; educated him in Latin
as If his native tongue. rousing him at
morning from sleep to the sound of music.
From his 9Th to his 18th year Montague
was at the College de Guyenne, where he
took the leading parts in Latin tragedies
composed by Muret and Buchanan. In
1854 he succeeded his father as councillor
in the Court des Aides of Perigueux. the
members of which were soon afterward
Incorporated in the parliament of Bor-
deaux. But nature had not destined Mon
taigne for the duties of the magistracy.
He say too many sides of every question:
he chose rather to fail in justice than in
humanity. In 1850 he acquired a large
fortune by marriage. and having lost his
father he retired from public functions
in 1870 to enjoy tranquil existence Of
meditation and of rambling through
books. He had published a year before
in fulillment of his fathers desire. a
translation of the "Theologia Naturalis"
of Raimond de Sebonde. a Spanish philos-
opher of the fifteenth century. and now
he occupied himself in preparing for the
press the writings of his dead friend, La
Boetie Love for his father and love for
his friend were the two passions of Mon
taigne's life. From 1871 to 1880 he dwelt in
retreat. indulging his humor for tranquil
freedom of mind. 1t was his custom to
enrich the margins of his books with
notes. and his earliest essays may be re-
garded as an extension of such notes.
Plutarch and Seneca Were, above all his
favorites. Afterward the volume which
he read with most enjoyment and anno-
tated most curiously was that of his own
life.-Edward Dowden.