of life, conformed to certain lofty and unusual principles; but these of our day are despised as being below common customs, as incapable of public service, as leading, in the eyes of the vulgar, a life of low and vile condition. (c) Odi homines ignava opera, philosophia sententiæ.[1] (a) As for those philosophers, say I, as they were great in learning, they were even greater in all action. And just as it was told of the geometrician of Syracuse that, when he was aroused from his contemplation to do something practical for the defence of his country, he instantly set on foot terrible engines and forces surpassing all human belief, yet, none the less, himself depised all that handiwork of his, and thought that he had thereby impaired the dignity of his art, of which his works were only, as it were, experiments;[2] so they,[3] when sometimes they were put to the test of action, were seen to soar on so lofty a wing that it clearly appeared that their hearts and minds must be marvellously enlarged and enriched by their understanding of things. (c) But some of them, seeing the seat of political government seized upon by incapable men, recoiled from it; and he who asked Crates how long it was necessary to study philosophy received this reply: “Until our armies are not led by donkey-drivers.”[4] Heraclitus resigned the kingship to his brother; and when the Ephesians charged him with wasting his time playing with children in front of the temple, “Is not this better worth doing than to rule affairs of state in your companionship?” he asked.[5] (a) Others, whose imaginations dwelt above fortune and the world, found the seats of justice, and even the thrones of kings, low and vile. (c) And Empedocles refused the kingship which the Agrigentines offered him.[6]
- ↑ I hate men of cowardly deeds and philosophical phrases. — Pacuvius, in Aulus Gellius, XIII, 8.
- ↑ See Plutarch, Life of Marcellus. This is a condensation of Plutarch’s description of the works executed by Archimedes; the thoughts which Montaigne ascribes to Archimedes himself, Plutarch ascribes to Plato.
- ↑ The philosophers.
- ↑ See Diogenes Laertius, Life of Crates. Montaigne evidently misread the passage.
- ↑ See Idem, Life of Heraclitus.
- ↑ See Idem, Life of Empedocles.
