The gentle nature of Michel Eygeum de Montaigne (1533092) recoiled from the violence of his age. With France split into warring religious fractions, he withdrew to lead a life of contemplation in the shelter of his native Bordeaux. His life's work became the writing of the 'Essays', which amount to a philosophical commentary on human existence.
Montaigne's reflections on friendship, fear, old age, smells, imagination, pedantry and everything else are seasoned with apt quotations from ancient literature, much of which he seems to have known by heart. But more than his deep learning it is his personality that engages our attention warm, tolerant, humane and sceptical. Quietly, but insistently, the 'Essays' warn against the evils of unthinking dogmatism.
