THE ESSAYS OF Eyquem MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, WITH VERY CONSIDERABLE AMENDMENTS AND IMPROVEMENTS FROM THE MOST ACCURATE FRENCH EDITION OF PETER COSTE. The Ninth Edition. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: PRINTED FOR W. MILLER, ALBEMARLE STREET; WHITE AND By C. Baldwin, New Bridge-street. continual OTHERS form man, I only declare what he is ; The world and I represent a particular one, very indifferently subject to formed, and whom, were I to model again, I would changes. certainly make very different from what he is; but what is done cannot be recalled. Now, though the features of my picture vary, there is still a likeness. The universe is but one perpetual motion, in which all things are incessantly wheeled about; the earth, the rocks of Caucasus, and the pyramids of Egypt, both by the general motion, and a particular one of their own. Constancy itself is no other than a more languid motion. I cannot be sure of my object: it is always disturbed and staggering by a natural giddiness. I take it in this point as it is at the instant when I consider it. I do not paint its being, I paint its passage; not a passage from one century to another, or, as the people say, from seven years to another seven; but from day to day, from minute to minute. I must accommodate my history to the time. I may soon change not only my fortune, but also my intention. It is a true copy of various and changeable accidents, and of imaginations that are wavering, and sometimes contrary. Whether it be VOL. III. B |