An Apology for Raymond Sebond

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) was never famous for staying on topic. The titles of his essays, and this book is his longest essay, are pretexts for writing about what interested him at the time. If you don't know any more about Raymond Sebond after reading this essay than you did before, don't worry about it! If you gave it a slow, thoughtful read, you have experienced one of the greatest minds in all of history asking what was the value of man's mind to arrive at the truth. The answer could be expressed as the saying for which Montaigne is most famous: "Que scais-je?" or "What do I know?" Reason may be what separates man from the animals, but what benefit has man derived from it? Is he any happier for it? Is he any closer to the ultimate truth? As one who has loved the _Essaies_ (French for "attempts") for many years, my advice to readers is to take them a little at a time. Don't be put off by all the quotes from Classical Antiquity. This was, after all, the Renaissance; and Montaigne was, like many of his contemporaries, delighted to see reflections of his thoughts in the writings of the Greeks and Romans. (Rabelais in _Gargantua and Pantagruel_ did the same thing.) Many of those quotes are interesting enough to make we want to follow up on Lucretius, Cicero, Marcus Manilius, and others whose names predominate through the essay. Montaigne had the motto "Que scais-je?" inscribed on the walls of the tower on his property. He was the ultimate skeptic, but (forgive the pun) he essayed to explain his thoughts more thoroughly, perhaps, than any man who ever lived. I heartily suggest you read this, and follow it up with a reading of his greatest essay, "Of Experience."