{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "montaigne.essais",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/montaigne/essais/livre-1/passage-45/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "The Essays",
    "author": "Michel de Montaigne",
    "date": "1580-1592; authorial layers, posthumous 1595 edition",
    "summary": "The Essays test a changing life against customs, books, and the body. Montaigne revises his judgment instead of hiding its contradictions.",
    "learning": "Choose an everyday certainty, identify the custom that makes it obvious, seek a counterexample, then state a judgment precise enough for action and modest enough for revision.",
    "long_summary": "The three books do not deliver a finished system. Each chapter tries a question through an experience, reading, anecdote, or embarrassment, then allows the inquiry to move its starting point.\n\nCanonical identity follows book and chapter. The French preserves a posthumous carrier of authorial layers; Charles Cotton’s English remains a distinct historical translation. Chapter I.28 is excluded because that page transmits La Boétie’s sonnets.",
    "historical_context": "The corpus manifests do not yet establish the precise place and circumstances of composition. The images below document the author’s world or the text’s transmission. They do not claim to show the exact scene of writing.",
    "material_world_label": "World of 1989",
    "material_world": {
        "technology": "Personal computers, satellites, video, industrial robots, and expensive mobile phones exist, but the public Web does not yet.",
        "science": "Computing, genetics, climate science, cosmology, and medical imaging produce growing data and international collaboration.",
        "medicine": "CT, MRI, transplantation, vaccines, and intensive care advance; the AIDS epidemic exposes both medical capacity and its limits.",
        "transport": "Cars, high-speed rail, metros, aircraft, and containers globalize people and goods.",
        "agriculture": "Machinery, chemical inputs, breeding, and cold chains support high yields with increasingly debated social and environmental costs.",
        "communication": "Fixed telephones, fax, television, radio, and newspapers predominate. Email and computer networks remain mainly professional or academic.",
        "clothing": "Loose suits, jeans, trainers, women’s power suits, sportswear, and urban subcultures create highly varied silhouettes."
    },
    "material_world_scenes": [
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-01.webp",
            "title": "Technology, science, and care",
            "description": "Personal computers, satellites, video, industrial robots, and expensive mobile phones exist, but the public Web does not yet. Computing, genetics, climate science, cosmology, and medical imaging produce growing data and international collaboration. CT, MRI, transplantation, vaccines, and intensive care advance; the AIDS epidemic exposes both medical capacity and its limits."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-02.webp",
            "title": "Travel and communication",
            "description": "Cars, high-speed rail, metros, aircraft, and containers globalize people and goods. Fixed telephones, fax, television, radio, and newspapers predominate. Email and computer networks remain mainly professional or academic."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-03.webp",
            "title": "Farming and food",
            "description": "Machinery, chemical inputs, breeding, and cold chains support high yields with increasingly debated social and environmental costs."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-04.webp",
            "title": "Clothing, women and men",
            "description": "Loose suits, jeans, trainers, women’s power suits, sportswear, and urban subcultures create highly varied silhouettes."
        }
    ],
    "intellectual_tradition": {
        "id": "skepticism",
        "label": "Skepticism"
    },
    "period": {
        "id": "classical",
        "label": "Medieval and Renaissance"
    },
    "languages": [
        "fr",
        "en"
    ],
    "manifestations": [
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/montaigne/essais/representations/fr.ndjson",
            "language": "fr",
            "records": 106,
            "role": "authorial_french_posthumous_print_carrier",
            "sha256": "c599dc68f0b0c4f45a636a49c711c4eb83598ba2d891783b790f4fc02950ade1",
            "translator": null
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/montaigne/essais/representations/en.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 106,
            "role": "historical_translation",
            "sha256": "24da8d9e43beb0ab6ee768be2a04deb6948b19e39c3f484ae047726f42670df2",
            "translator": "Charles Cotton"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "academic_skepticism",
            "label": "Academic skepticism"
        },
        {
            "id": "anger",
            "label": "Anger"
        },
        {
            "id": "care_of_soul",
            "label": "Care of the soul"
        },
        {
            "id": "courage",
            "label": "Courage"
        },
        {
            "id": "custom_and_habit",
            "label": "Custom and habit"
        },
        {
            "id": "death",
            "label": "Death"
        },
        {
            "id": "ether_field",
            "label": "Ether and field"
        },
        {
            "id": "family",
            "label": "Family"
        },
        {
            "id": "force",
            "label": "Force"
        },
        {
            "id": "fortune",
            "label": "Fortune"
        },
        {
            "id": "friendship",
            "label": "Friendship"
        },
        {
            "id": "judgment_and_impressions",
            "label": "Judgments and impressions"
        },
        {
            "id": "law",
            "label": "Law"
        },
        {
            "id": "messiah",
            "label": "Messiah"
        },
        {
            "id": "patience",
            "label": "Steadfast patience"
        },
        {
            "id": "self_portrait_inquiry",
            "label": "Inquiry through self-portrait"
        },
        {
            "id": "sin",
            "label": "Sin"
        },
        {
            "id": "suffering",
            "label": "Suffering"
        },
        {
            "id": "time",
            "label": "Time"
        },
        {
            "id": "war_and_peace",
            "label": "War and peace"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "montaigne.essais"
    ],
    "passages": 106,
    "word_count": 458785,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 458785,
        "fr": 366556
    },
    "editorial_status": "gpt_5_6_semantic_draft_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "essais-book-chapter-v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "book",
                "label_fr": "Livre",
                "label_en": "Book"
            },
            {
                "key": "chapter",
                "label_fr": "Chapitre",
                "label_en": "Chapter"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Chapitre",
        "leaf_en": "Chapter"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:montaigne.essais:1.45",
    "canonical_ref": "1.45",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "(1, p. 114v-115).Michel de MontaigneC145 De la bataille de dreuxMontaigne - Essais, Éd de Bordeaux, 1.djvuMontaigne - Essais, Éd de Bordeaux, 1.djvu/1114v-115\nChapitre 45 :\nDe la Bataille de Dreux\n\nIL y eut tout plein de rares accidens en nostre bataille de Dreux ; mais ceux qui ne favorisent pas fort la reputation de monsieur de Guise, mettent volontiers en avant qu’il ne se peut excuser d’avoir faict alte et temporisé avec les forces qu’il\ncommandoit, cependant qu’on enfonçoit monsieur le Connestable, chef\nde\nl’armée, avecques l’artillerie, et qu’il valoit mieux se hazarder,\nprenant l’ennemy par flanc, qu’attendant l’advantage de le voir en\nqueue, souffrir une si lourde perte ; mais outre ce que l’issue en\ntesmoigna, qui en debattra sans passion me confessera aisément, à\nmon\nadvis, que le but et la visée, non seulement d’un capitaine, mais de\nchaque soldat, doit regarder la victoire en gros, et que nulles\noccurrences particulieres, quelque interest qu’il y ayt, ne le\ndoivent\ndivertir de ce point là. Philopoemen, en une rencontre contre\nMachanidas, ayant envoyé devant, pour attaquer l’escarmouche, bonne\ntrouppe d’archers et gens de traict, et l’ennemy, apres les avoir\nrenversez, s’amusant à les poursuivre à toute bride et coulant apres\nsa victoire le long de la bataille où estoit Philopoemen, quoy que\nses soldats s’en émeussent, il ne fut d’advis de bouger de sa place,\nny de se presenter à l’ennemy pour secourir ses gens ; ains, les ayant\nlaissé chasser et mettre en pieces à sa veue, commença la charge sur\nles ennemis au bataillon de leurs gens de pied, lors qu’il les vit\ntout\nà fait abandonnez de leurs gens de cheval ; et, bien que ce fussent\nLacedemoniens, d’autant qu’il les prit à heure que, pour tenir tout\ngaigné, ils commençoient à se desordonner, il en vint aisément à\nbout, et, cela fait, se mit à poursuivre Machanidas. Ce cas est\ngermain à celuy de Monsieur de Guise.",
            "source_id": "wikisource-fr-montaigne-essais",
            "translation_type": "authorial_french_posthumous_print_carrier"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "Chapter XLV. Of the battle of Dreux.\n\nOur battle of Dreux is remarkable for several extraordinary incidents;\n\nbut such as have no great kindness for M. de Guise, nor much favour his\n\nreputation, are willing to have him thought to blame, and that his making\n\na halt and delaying time with the forces he commanded, whilst the\n\nConstable, who was general of the army, was racked through and through\n\nwith the enemy's artillery, his battalion routed, and himself taken\n\nprisoner, is not to be excused; and that he had much better have run the\n\nhazard of charging the enemy in flank, than staying for the advantage of\n\nfalling in upon the rear, to suffer so great and so important a loss.\n\nBut, besides what the event demonstrated, he who will consider it without\n\npassion or prejudice will easily be induced to confess that the aim and\n\ndesign, not of a captain only, but of every private soldier, ought to\n\nregard the victory in general, and that no particular occurrences, how\n\nnearly soever they may concern his own interest, should divert him from\n\nthat pursuit. Philopoemen, in an encounter with Machanidas, having sent\n\nbefore a good strong party of his archers and slingers to begin the\n\nskirmish, and these being routed and hotly pursued by the enemy, who,\n\npushing on the fortune of their arms, and in that pursuit passing by the\n\nbattalion where Philopoemen was, though his soldiers were impatient to\n\nfall on, he did not think fit to stir from his post nor to present\n\nhimself to the enemy to relieve his men, but having suffered these to be\n\nchased and cut in pieces before his face, charged in upon the enemy's\n\nfoot when he saw them left unprotected by the horse, and notwithstanding\n\nthat they were Lacedaemonians, yet taking them in the nick, when thinking\n\nthemselves secure of the victory, they began to disorder their ranks; he\n\ndid this business with great facility, and then put himself in pursuit of\n\nMachanidas. Which case is very like that of Monsieur de Guise.\n\nIn that bloody battle betwixt Agesilaus and the Boeotians, which\n\nXenophon, who was present at it, reports to be the sharpest that he had\n\never seen, Agesilaus waived the advantage that fortune presented him, to\n\nlet the Boeotian battalions pass by and then to charge them in the rear,\n\nhow certain soever he might make himself of the victory, judging it would\n\nrather be an effect of conduct than valour, to proceed that way; and\n\ntherefore, to show his prowess, rather chose with a marvellous ardour of\n\ncourage to charge them in the front; but he was well beaten and well\n\nwounded for his pains, and constrained at last to disengage himself, and\n\nto take the course he had at first neglected; opening his battalion to\n\ngive way to this torrent of Boeotians, and they being passed by, taking\n\nnotice that they marched in disorder, like men who thought themselves out\n\nof danger, he pursued and charged them in flank; yet could not so prevail\n\nas to bring it to so general a rout but that they leisurely retreated,\n\nstill facing about upon him till they had retired to safety.",
            "translator": "Charles Cotton",
            "source_id": "wikisource-en-montaigne-essais",
            "translation_type": "historical_translation"
        }
    ],
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}