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• List of Illustrations
• Essays of Montaigne
• Of Experience
• Sketch of the Life of Montaigne
• Letters of Montaigne
• I: To Messire Antoine Du Prat, Provost of Paris.
• II: To Monseigneur, Monseigneur De Montaigne (his Father). (1563.)
• III: To the Same.
• IV: To Monsieur, Monsieur De Lansac, Knight of the King’s Order, Privy Councillor, Subcontroller of His Finance, and Captain of the Cent Gardes of His Household.
• V: To Monsieur, Monsieur De Mesmes, Seigneur De Roissy and Malassize, Privy Councillor to the King.
• VI: To Monsieur, Monsieur De L’hospital, Chancellor of France.
• VII: To Monsieur, Monsieur De Foix, Privy Councillor, and Ambassador of His Majesty to the Signory of Venice.
• VIII: To Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle De Montaigne, My Wife.
• IX: To Madame De Grammont, Comtesse De Guissen.
• X: To the Jurats of Bordeaux.
• XI: To Monseigneur, Monseigneur De Nantouillet, Councillor to the King.
• XII: To Henry III.
• XIII: Memorial of Montaigne, Mayor of Bordeaux, and of His Jurats, Addressed to the King of Navarre, On Different Subjects Interesting That Same Town.
• XIV: To the Marechal De Matignon.
• XV: To the Same.
• XVI: To Monsieur, Monsieur Dupuy, the King’s Councillor In His Court and Parliament of Paris, At Xaintes.
• XVII: To Mm, the Jurats of the Town of Bordeaux.
• XVIII: To the Marechal De Matignon.
• XIX: To the Same.
• XX: To the Same.
• XXI: To the Jurats of Bordeaux.
• XXII: To the Marechal De Matignon.
• XXIII: To the Same.
• XXIV: To the Same.
• XXV: To the Same.
• XXVI: To the Same.
• XXVII: To the Same.
• XXVIII: To the Jurats of Bordeaux.
• XXIX: To the Same.
• XXX: To the Marechal De Matignon.
• XXXI: To the Same.
• XXXII: To Mademoiselle Paulmier.
• XXXIII: To Henry IV.
• XXXIV: To — —
• XXXV: To Henry IV.
• Notes
• Volume I
• Volume Ii
• Volume Iii
• Volume Iv
• Volume V
• Volume Vi
• Volume Vii
• Volume Viii
• Volume Ix
• Volume X

III

To the Same.

In pursuance of the instructions which you gave me last year in your house at Montaigne, Monseigneur, I have put into a French dress, with my own hand, Raymonde de Sebonde, that great Spanish theologian and philosopher; and I have divested him, so far as I could, of that rough bearing and barbaric appearance which you saw him wear at first; so that, in my opinion, he is now qualified to present himself in the best company. It is perfectly possible that some fastidious persons will detect in the book some trace of Gascon parentage; but it will be so much the more to their discredit that they allowed the task to devolve on one who is quite a novice in these things. It is only right, Monseigneur, that the work should come before the world under your auspices, since whatever emendations and polish it may have received are owing to you. Still I see well that, if you think proper to balance accounts with the author, you will find yourself much his debtor; for against his excellent and religious discourses, his lofty and, so to speak, divine conceptions, you will find that you will have to set nothing but words and phraseology; a sort of merchandise so ordinary and commonplace, that whoever has the most of it, peradventure is the worst off.

Monseigneur, I pray God to grant you a very long and happy life. From Paris, this 18th of June 1568. Your most humble and most obedient son,

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE.