y hoping that he has set down nothing repugnant to the
prescriptions of the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman church, where he was
born and out of which he purposes not to die, Montaigne proceeds to
demonstrate that God is unknowable. A man cannot grasp more than his
hand will hold nor straddle more than his legs' length. Not only all
religions, but all scientists give the lie to each other. Copernicus,
having recently overthrown the old astronomy, may be later overthrown
himself. In like manner the new medical science of Paracelsus
contradicts the old and may in turn pass away. The same facts appear
differently to different men, and "nothing comes to us but falsified
{633} and altered by our senses." Probability is as hard to get as
truth, for a man's mind is changed by illness, or even by time, and by
his wishes. Even skepticism is uncertain, for "when the Pyrrhonians
say, 'I doubt,' you have them fast by the throat to make them avow that
at least you are assured and know that they doubt." In short, "nothing
is certain but uncertainty," and "nothing seemeth true that may not
seem false." Montaigne wrote of pleasure as the chief end of man, and
of death as annihilation. The glory of philosophy is to teach men to
despise death. One should do so by remembering that it is as great
folly to weep because one would not be alive a hundred years hence as
it would be to weep because one had not been living a hundred years ago.

[Sidenote: Charron, 1541-1603]

A disciple who dotted the i's and crossed the t's of Montaigne was
Peter Charron. He, too, played off the contradictions of the sects
against each other. All claim inspiration and who can tell which
inspiration is right? Can the same Spirit tell the Catholic that the
books of Maccabees are canonical and tell Luther that they are not?
The senses are fallible and the soul, located by Charron in a ventricle
of the brain, is subject to strange disturbances. Many things almost
universally believed, like immortality, cannot be proved. Man is like
the lower animals. "We believe, judge, act, live and die on faith,"
but this faith is poorly supported, for all religions and all
authorities are but of human origin.

[Sidenote: English skeptics]

English thought followed rather than led that of Europe throughout the
century. At first tolerant and liberal, it became violently religious
towards the middle of the period and then underwent a strong reaction
in the direct