Essays of Montaigne, Vol. 2 by Michel de Montaigne

Author:Michel de Montaigne
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Liberty Fund, Inc.
Published: 2010-09-07T23:00:00+00:00

IT IS FOLLY TO REFER TRUTH AND ERROR TO OUR OWN CAPACITY

’TIS NOT, perhaps, without reason, that we attribute facility of belief and easiness of persuasion to simplicity and ignorance; for I fancy I have heard belief compared to the impression of a seal upon the soul, which by how much softer and of less resistance it is, is the more easy to be impressed upon:—

“As the scale of the balance must give way to the weight that presses it down, so the mind yields to demonstration.”

But how much the soul is more empty and without counterpoise, with so much greater facility it yields under the weight of the first persuasion. And this is the reason that children, the common people, women, and sick folks, are most apt to be led by the ears. But then, on the other hand, ’tis a foolish presumption to slight and condemn all things for false that do not appear to us probable; which is the ordinary vice of such as fancy themselves wiser than their neighbors. I was myself once one of those; and if I heard talk of dead folks walking, of prophecies, enchantments, witchcrafts, or any other story I had no mind to believe:—

“Dreams, magic terrors, marvels, sorceries,

Nightmares, and Thessalian prodigies.”

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