{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "montaigne.essais",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/montaigne/essais/livre-1/passage-57/",
    "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": "anguish",
            "label": "Anguish"
        },
        {
            "id": "care_of_soul",
            "label": "Care of the soul"
        },
        {
            "id": "constitutional_government",
            "label": "Constitutional government"
        },
        {
            "id": "custom_and_habit",
            "label": "Custom and habit"
        },
        {
            "id": "death",
            "label": "Death"
        },
        {
            "id": "education",
            "label": "Education"
        },
        {
            "id": "ether_field",
            "label": "Ether and field"
        },
        {
            "id": "faith",
            "label": "Faith"
        },
        {
            "id": "family",
            "label": "Family"
        },
        {
            "id": "fortune",
            "label": "Fortune"
        },
        {
            "id": "friendship",
            "label": "Friendship"
        },
        {
            "id": "hope",
            "label": "Hope"
        },
        {
            "id": "jedi_training",
            "label": "Jedi training"
        },
        {
            "id": "judgment",
            "label": "Judgment"
        },
        {
            "id": "judgment_and_impressions",
            "label": "Judgments and impressions"
        },
        {
            "id": "justice",
            "label": "Justice"
        },
        {
            "id": "knowledge",
            "label": "Knowledge"
        },
        {
            "id": "law",
            "label": "Law"
        },
        {
            "id": "nature",
            "label": "Nature"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "id": "roles",
            "label": "Roles and relationships"
        },
        {
            "id": "self_portrait_inquiry",
            "label": "Inquiry through self-portrait"
        },
        {
            "id": "service",
            "label": "Service"
        },
        {
            "id": "sin",
            "label": "Sin"
        },
        {
            "id": "spirit",
            "label": "Spirit"
        },
        {
            "id": "suffering",
            "label": "Suffering"
        },
        {
            "id": "time",
            "label": "Time"
        },
        {
            "id": "virtue",
            "label": "Virtue"
        },
        {
            "id": "war_and_peace",
            "label": "War and peace"
        },
        {
            "id": "wisdom",
            "label": "Wisdom"
        }
    ],
    "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:1.57",
    "canonical_ref": "1.57",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "(1, p. 134v-136).Michel de MontaigneC1Montaigne - Essais, Éd de Bordeaux, 1.djvuMontaigne - Essais, Éd de Bordeaux, 1.djvu/1134v-136\nChapitre 57 :\nDe l’Aage\n\nIE ne puis recevoir la façon dequoy nous establissons la durée de nostre vie. Je voy que les sages l’acoursissent bien fort au pris de la commune opinion. Comment, dict le jeune Caton à ceux qui le vouloyent empescher de se tuer, suis je à cette heure en aage où l’on me puisse reprocher d’abandonner trop tost la vie ? Si n’avoit il que quarante et huict ans. Il estimoit cet aage là bien meur et\nbien avancé, considerant combien peu d’hommes y arrivent : et ceux qui\ns’entretiennent de ce, que je ne sçay quel cours, qu’ils nomment\nnaturel,\npromet quelques années au delà, ils le pourroient faire, s’ils\navoient privilege qui les exemptast d’un si grand nombre d’accidents\nausquels chacun de nous est en bute par une naturelle subjection, qui\npeuvent interrompre ce cours qu’ils se promettent. Quelle resverie\nest-ce de s’attendre de mourir d’une defaillance de forces que\nl’extreme vieillesse apporte, et de se proposer ce but à nostre\ndurée,\nveu que c’est l’espece de mort la plus rare de toutes et la moins en\nusage ? Nous l’apellons seule naturelle, comme si c’estoit contre\nnature de voir un homme se rompre le col d’une cheute, s’estoufer d’un\nnaufrage, se laisser surprendre à la peste ou à une pleuresie, et\ncomme si nostre condition ordinaire ne nous presentoit à tous ces\ninconvenients. Ne nous flatons pas de ces beaux mots : on doit, à\nl’aventure, appeller plustost naturel ce qui est general, commun et\nuniversel. Mourir de vieillesse, c’est une mort rare, singuliere et\nextraordinaire, et d’autant moins naturelle que les autres ; c’est la\nderniere et extreme sorte de mourir : plus elle est esloignée de nous,\nd’autant est elle moins esperable ; c’est bien la borne au delà de\nlaquelle nous n’irons pas, et que la loy de nature a prescript pour\nn’estre poinct outrepassée ; mais c’est un sien rare privilege de\nnous\nfaire durer jusques là. C’est une exemption qu’elle donne par faveur\nparticuliere à un seul en l’espace de deux ou trois siecles, le\ndeschargeant des traverses et difficultez qu’elle a jetté entre deux\nen cette longue carriere. Par ainsi, mon opinion est de regarder que\nl’aage auquel nous sommes arrivez, c’est un aage auquel peu de gens\narrivent. Puis que d’un train ordinaire les hommes ne viennent pas\njusques là, c’est signe que nous sommes bien avant. Et, puis que nous\navons passé les limites accoustumez, qui est la vraye mesure de nostre\nvie, nous ne devons esperer\nd’aller\nguiere outre : ayant eschappé tant d’occasions de mourir, où nous\nvoyons trebucher le monde, nous devons reconnoistre qu’une fortune\nextraordinaire comme celle-là qui nous maintient, et hors de l’usage\ncommun, ne nous doit guiere durer. C’est un vice des loix mesmes\nd’avoir cette fauce imagination : elles ne veulent pas qu’un homme soit\ncapable du maniement de ses biens, qu’il n’ait vingt et cinq ans ; et à\npeine conservera-il jusques lors le maniement de sa vie. Auguste\nretrancha cinq ans des anciennes ordonnances Romaines, et declara\nqu’il suffisoit à ceux qui prenoient charge de judicature, d’avoir\ntrente\nans. Servius Tullius dispensa les chevaliers qui avoient passé\nquarante sept ans, des courvées de la guerre ; Auguste les remit à\nquarante et cinq. De renvoyer les hommes au sejour avant\ncinquante cinq\nou soixante ans, il me semble n’y avoir pas grande apparence. Je\nserois d’advis qu’on estandit nostre vacation et occupation autant\nqu’on pourroit, pour la commodité publique ; mais je trouve la faute en\nl’autre costé, de ne nous y embesongner pas assez tost. Cettuy-cy\navoit\nesté juge universel du monde à dix et neuf ans, et veut que, pour\njuger de la place d’une goutiere, on en ait trente. Quant à moy,\nj’estime que nos ames sont denouées à vingt ans ce qu’elles doivent\nestre, et qu’elles promettent tout ce qu’elles pourront. Jamais ame,\nqui n’ait donné en cet aage arre bien evidente de sa force, n’en\ndonna\ndepuis la preuve. Les qualitez et vertus naturelles enseignent dans\nce\nterme là, ou jamais, ce qu’elles ont de vigoureux et de beau :\n\nDe toutes les belles actions humaines qui sont venues à ma\nconnoissance, de quelque sorte qu’elles soient, je penserois en avoir\nplus grande part, à nombrer celles qui ont esté produites, et aux\nsiecles anciens et au nostre, avant l’aage de trente\nans, que apres ;\n\nQuant à moy, je tien pour certain que, depuis cet aage, et mon\nesprit\net mon corps ont plus diminué qu’augmenté, et plus reculé que\navancé. Il est possible qu’à ceux qui emploient bien le temps, la\nscience et l’experience croissent avec la vie ; mais la vivacité,\nla promptitude, la fermeté, et autres parties bien plus nostres, plus\nimportantes et essentielles, se fanissent et s’alanguissent.\n\nje me plains des loix, non pas dequoy elles nous laissent trop tard à\nla besongne, mais dequoy elles nous y emploient trop tard. Il me\nsemble que, considerant la foiblesse de nostre vie, et à combien\nd’escueils ordinaires et naturels elle est exposée, on n’en devroit\npas faire si grande part à la naissance, à l’oisiveté, et à\nl’apprentissage.",
            "source_id": "wikisource-fr-montaigne-essais",
            "translation_type": "authorial_french_posthumous_print_carrier"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "Chapter LVII. Of age.\n\nI cannot allow of the way in which we settle for ourselves the duration\n\nof our life. I see that the sages contract it very much in comparison of\n\nthe common opinion: \"what,\" said the younger Cato to those who would stay\n\nhis hand from killing himself, \"am I now of an age to be reproached that\n\nI go out of the world too soon?\" And yet he was but eight-and-forty\n\nyears old. He thought that to be a mature and advanced age, considering\n\nhow few arrive unto it. And such as, soothing their thoughts with I know\n\nnot what course of nature, promise to themselves some years beyond it,\n\ncould they be privileged from the infinite number of accidents to which\n\nwe are by a natural subjection exposed, they might have some reason so to\n\ndo. What am idle conceit is it to expect to die of a decay of strength,\n\nwhich is the effect of extremest age, and to propose to ourselves no\n\nshorter lease of life than that, considering it is a kind of death of all\n\nothers the most rare and very seldom seen? We call that only a natural\n\ndeath; as if it were contrary to nature to see a man break his neck with\n\na fall, be drowned in shipwreck, be snatched away with a pleurisy or the\n\nplague, and as if our ordinary condition did not expose us to these\n\ninconveniences. Let us no longer flatter ourselves with these fine\n\nwords; we ought rather, peradventure, to call that natural which is\n\ngeneral, common, and universal.\n\nTo die of old age is a death rare, extraordinary, and singular, and,\n\ntherefore, so much less natural than the others; 'tis the last and\n\nextremest sort of dying: and the more remote, the less to be hoped for.\n\nIt is, indeed, the bourn beyond which we are not to pass, and which the\n\nlaw of nature has set as a limit, not to be exceeded; but it is, withal,\n\na privilege she is rarely seen to give us to last till then. 'Tis a\n\nlease she only signs by particular favour, and it may be to one only in\n\nthe space of two or three ages, and then with a pass to boot, to carry\n\nhim through all the traverses and difficulties she has strewed in the way\n\nof this long career. And therefore my opinion is, that when once forty\n\nyears we should consider it as an age to which very few arrive. For\n\nseeing that men do not usually proceed so far, it is a sign that we are\n\npretty well advanced; and since we have exceeded the ordinary bounds,\n\nwhich is the just measure of life, we ought not to expect to go much\n\nfurther; having escaped so many precipices of death, whereinto we have\n\nseen so many other men fall, we should acknowledge that so extraordinary\n\na fortune as that which has hitherto rescued us from those eminent\n\nperils, and kept us alive beyond the ordinary term of living, is not like\n\nto continue long.\n\n'Tis a fault in our very laws to maintain this error: these say that a\n\nman is not capable of managing his own estate till he be five-and-twenty\n\nyears old, whereas he will have much ado to manage his life so long.\n\nAugustus cut off five years from the ancient Roman standard, and declared\n\nthat thirty years old was sufficient for a judge. Servius Tullius\n\nsuperseded the knights of above seven-and-forty years of age from the\n\nfatigues of war; Augustus dismissed them at forty-five; though methinks\n\nit seems a little unreasonable that men should be sent to the fireside\n\ntill five-and-fifty or sixty years of age. I should be of opinion that\n\nour vocation and employment should be as far as possible extended for the\n\npublic good: I find the fault on the other side, that they do not employ\n\nus early enough. This emperor was arbiter of the whole world at\n\nnineteen, and yet would have a man to be thirty before he could be fit to\n\ndetermine a dispute about a gutter.\n\nFor my part, I believe our souls are adult at twenty as much as they are\n\never like to be, and as capable then as ever. A soul that has not by\n\nthat time given evident earnest of its force and virtue will never after\n\ncome to proof. The natural qualities and virtues produce what they have\n\nof vigorous and fine, within that term or never,\n\n\"Si l'espine rion picque quand nai,\n\nA pene que picque jamai,\"\n\nas they say in Dauphin.\n\nOf all the great human actions I ever heard or read of, of what sort\n\nsoever, I have observed, both in former ages and our own, more were\n\nperformed before the age of thirty than after; and this ofttimes in the\n\nvery lives of the same men. May I not confidently instance in those of\n\nHannibal and his great rival Scipio? The better half of their lives they\n\nlived upon the glory they had acquired in their youth; great men after,\n\n'tis true, in comparison of others; but by no means in comparison of\n\nthemselves. As to my own particular, I do certainly believe that since\n\nthat age, both my understanding and my constitution have rather decayed\n\nthan improved, and retired rather than advanced. 'Tis possible, that\n\nwith those who make the best use of their time, knowledge and experience\n\nmay increase with their years; but vivacity, promptitude, steadiness, and\n\nother pieces of us, of much greater importance, and much more essentially\n\nour own, languish and decay:\n\n\"Ubi jam validis quassatum est viribus aevi\n\nCorpus, et obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus,\n\nClaudicat ingenium, delirat linguaque, mensque.\"\n\nSometimes the body first submits to age, sometimes the mind; and I have\n\nseen enough who have got a weakness in their brains before either in\n\ntheir legs or stomach; and by how much the more it is a disease of no\n\ngreat pain to the sufferer, and of obscure symptoms, so much greater is\n\nthe danger. For this reason it is that I complain of our laws, not that\n\nthey keep us too long to our work, but that they set us to work too late.\n\nFor the frailty of life considered, and to how many ordinary and natural\n\nrocks it is exposed, one ought not to give up so large a portion of it to\n\nchildhood, idleness, and apprenticeship.",
            "translator": "Charles Cotton",
            "source_id": "wikisource-en-montaigne-essais",
            "translation_type": "historical_translation"
        }
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}