reason that" (I shall here steal
Plutarch's own words, which are better than mine) "he by so doing
deprived himself of the violent impression the motion of running
adds to the first shock of arms, and hindered that clashing of the
combatants against one another, which is wont to give them greater
impetuosity and fury, especially when they come to rush in with
their utmost vigor, their courages increasing by the shouts and the
career; 'tis to render the soldiers' ardor, as a man may say, more
reserved and cold." This is what he says. But, if Caesar had come by
the worse, why might it not as well have been urged by another,
that, on the contrary, the strongest and most steady posture of
fighting is that wherein a man stands planted firm, without motion;
and that they who are steady upon the march, closing up, and
reserving their force within themselves for the push of the
business, have a great advantage against those who are disordered,
and who have already spent half their breath in running on
precipitately to the charge? Besides that, an army is a body made
up of so many individual members, it is impossible for it to move
in this fury with so exact a motion as not to break the order of
battle, and that the best of them are not engaged before their
fellows can come on to help them.

The sententiousness of Montaigne may be illustrated by transferring here
a page of brief excerpts from the "Essays," collected by Mr. Bayle St.
John in his biography of the author. This apothegmatic or proverbial
quality in Montaigne had a very important sequel of fruitful influence
on subsequent French writers, as chapters to follow in this volume will
abundantly show. In reading the sentences subjoined, you will have the
sensation of coming suddenly upon a treasure-trove of coined proverbial
wisdom:--

Our minds are never at home, but ever beyond home.

I will take care, if possible, that my death shall say nothing that
my life has not said.

Life in itself is neither good nor bad: it is the place of what is
good or bad.

Knowledge should not be stuck on to the mind, but incorporated in
it.

Irresolution seems to me the most common and apparent vice of our
nature.

Age wrinkles the mind more than the face.

Habit is a second nature.

Hunger cures love.

It is eas