like monkeys, and not as men
     Motive to some vicious occasion or some prospect of profit
     My books:  from me hold that which I have not retained
     My dog unseasonably importunes me to play
     My innocence is a simple one; little vigour and no art. 
     Never observed any great stability in my soul to resist passions
     Nothing tempts my tears but tears
     Omit, as incredible, such things as they do not understand
     On all occasions to contradict and oppose
     Only desire to become more wise, not more learned or eloquent
     Passion of dandling and caressing infants scarcely born
     Perfection:  but I will not buy it so dear as it costs
     Plato will have nobody marry before thirty
     Prudent and just man may be intemperate and inconsistent
     Puerile simplicities of our children
     Shelter my own weakness under these great reputations
     Socrates kept a confounded scolding wife
     The authors, with whom I converse
     There is no recompense becomes virtue
     To do well where there was danger was the proper office
     To whom no one is ill who can be good? 
     Turks have alms and hospitals for beasts
     Vices will cling together, if a man have not a care
     Virtue is much strengthened by combats
     Virtue refuses facility for a companion

ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE

Translated by Charles Cotton

Edited by William Carew Hazilitt

1877

CONTENTS OF VOLUME 11.

XIII.  Of judging of the death of another. 
XIV.  That the mind hinders itself. 
XV.  That our desires are augmented by difficulty. 
XVI.  Of glory. 
XVII.  Of presumption.

CHAPTER XIII

OF JUDGING OF THE DEATH OF ANOTHER

When we judge of another’s assurance in death, which, without doubt, is the most remarkable action of human life, we are to take heed of one thing, which is that men very hardly believe themselves to have arrived to that period.  Few men come to die in the opinion that it is their latest hour; and there is nothing wherein the flattery of hope more deludes us; It never ceases to whisper in our ears, “Others have been much sicker without dying; your condition is not so desperate as ’tis thought; and, at the worst, God has done other miracles.”  Which happens by reason that we set too much value upon ourselves; it seems as if the universality of things were in some measure to suffer by our dissolution, and that it commiserates our condition, forasmuch as our disturbed sight represents things to itself erroneously, and that we are of opinion they stand in as much need of us as we do of them, like people at sea, to whom mountains, fields, cities, heaven and earth are tossed at the same rate as they are: