MONTAIGNE, MrenEr., EYQUEM DE, a distinguished French moral philosopher, was b. in 153:3, at his paternal home of Montaigne, in Perigord. In accordance with his father's eccentric ideas on education, he was taught, and suffered only to speak Latin from his earliest infancy, in consequence of which he acquired such a perfect mastery over the language, that when, in his tenth year, he entered the college of Bordeaux, his masters, Grouchi, Buchanan, and Muret, were almost afraid to address him. On the expiration of his course of studies, which were directed to law, he received, in 1554, the appoinunent of councilor in the parliament of Bordeaux; but being possessed of ample means, and having no inclination for a public life, he devo1ed himself to the study of the various schools of Greek and Roman philosophy; and on the death of his father, in com pliance with whose wish he had made a translation of the natural theology of Ray mundus Sebondus (Paris, 1569), he retired to his ancestral estate, where 1:e lived in retirement during the terrible season of religious oppression which desolated France for so many years. During this period, 15S0. he composed the first two books of his celebrated Essais, the third portion of which appeared in 1588, after his return from an extensivetcourse of travels, which he had undertaken partly to escape from the plague, and partly for the improvement of his own health, and during which he visited Rome, and was received with signal favor by the pope. Montaigne's ExRais, although not con ceived in the spirit of a believing Christian, or marked by the reticence and delicacy of expression which modern refinement demands, are very extraordinary productions, not only for the learning and sound reasoning which they manifest, but also for the frank and liberal tone in which social questions are discussed, notwithstanding that the author wrote at a period when religious differences and party feelings blinded the judgments of men.
Montaigne's ethics were those of Seneca and the other philosophers of ancient times, whose works he had,SO thoroughly mastered; and, judged from ourpoiat otview, his morality is that of a virtuous pagan merely; but when we bear in mind the turufoil of civil war, and the consequent disorganization of society, together with the low ebb of literature in France at that period, we must do justice to the great merit of the writer, and the influences for good which his writings exerted. Montaigne was a constant, and occasionally a suc cessful mediator between the party of Henry of _Navarre and that of the Guises, and stood in relations of friendship with men of all creeds. Ile died in 1592 as an avowed member of the Church of Rome, in whose doctrines he professed implicit faith, notwith standing the sceptical bias which he had through life been at no pains to conceal. Numerous editions have appeared of his ENsais, among which we may instance those of De Coste (5 vols. Hag. 1727), and Victor Leclerc (Paris, 1826). Nearly 200 years after his death, the discovery was made at -Montaigne of the MS. of his travels, which was was published at Paris in 1774 under the title of Journal de V/y,yage de M. de M. en Italie par la Suisse et l' Allemagite. Translations of the Email exist in almost all the European languages; the best English translation is that by Cotton. The best b:ographies of Mon taigne are by Grim (Paris, 1855); Payen (Paris, 1850); and Boyle St. John (Loud. 1857).