Literary and Philosophical Essays

Michel de Montaigne · Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve

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Translator names not noted above: John Florio and Thomas Kingsmill Abbott. Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume XXXII features works of French, German, and Italian philosophy and literary criticism from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries: [ "That We Should Not Judge of Our Happiness Until After Our Death," "That to Philosophize Is to Learn How to Die," "Of the Institution and Education of Children," "Of Friendship," and "Of Books," by Montaigne [ "Montaigne" and "What is a Classic?" by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve [ "The Poetry of the Celtic Races" by Ernest Renan [ "The Education of the Human Race" by Cotthold Ephraim Lessing [ "Letters Upon the Aesthetic Education of Man" by J.C. Friedrich Von Schiller [ "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, and Transition From Popular Moral Philosophy to the Metaphysic of Morals" by Immanuel Kant [ "Byron and Goethe" by Giuseppe Mazzini

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Michel de Montaigne was born in Chateau de Montaigne, near Bordeaux, France, on February 28, 1533. He received his early education at the College de Guyenne in Bordeaux and studied law at Bordeaux and Toulouse, becoming a counselor of the Court des Aides of Perigueaux, the Bordeaux Parliament and, in 1561, at the court of Charles IX. In 1565, Montaigne married Francoise de la Chassaigne. They raised one daughter, with four other children dying in infancy. He lived the life as a country gentleman and traveled extensively through Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. Montaigne was a moderate Roman Catholic and an advocate of toleration, acting as an intermediary between Henry of Navarre and the court party. As a result, in 1588, he was arrested by members of the Protestant League and thrown into the Bastille for several hours. His work Essais established the essay as a new literary form and influenced both French and English writers; it was quoted by William Shakespeare and imitated by Francis Bacon. Michel de Montaigne died on September 13, 1592 at his chateau in France.