Montaigne: A Very Short Introduction by William M. Hamlin

Author:William M. Hamlin [Hamlin, William M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780190848798
Google: Cf7-DwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0190848774
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2020-09-30T23:00:00+00:00

In essence, Montaigne interprets the very fact of difference between the New World and the Old as a tension between natural and artificial behavior. The nudity of American natives is literal, but for Montaigne it is figurative as well: it signifies their freedom from the needless encumbrances of European life, and thus their comparative purity. Europeans, meanwhile, are beset with superfluous desires, and their laws, hierarchies, and technological adaptations constitute a fundamental corruption of that which is natural and pristine. This is not to deny that hammocks and poems are works of human artifice; Montaigne knows this. But on his imagined scale between natural simplicity and debased complexity, the “knowledge of how to enjoy [one’s] condition happily” (I.31.156) lies almost entirely with the naked cannibals of America.

On the October day in 1562 when Montaigne found himself in the presence of several such cannibals, someone asked them what they regarded as the most striking features of French society. They said, first, that they thought it “very strange” that so many armed and powerful men would “submit to obey a child”—King Charles being only twelve years old at the time (I.31.159). Strange, too, was the fact that the poor and the hungry among the French population preferred to live in misery rather than rebel against their affluent fellow citizens. If La Boétie had still been alive he would have found these observations surprisingly pertinent to his arguments in the Discourse on Voluntary Servitude. In any event, once the king had left the premises, Montaigne at long last had an opportunity to speak directly with an American native. And though his incompetent translator misunderstood much of what Montaigne wanted to say, he managed to ask this man what privileges he enjoyed as a military figure. The American replied that he was thereby enabled to lead an army of four or five thousand warriors and to walk through jungle underbrush on paths prepared for his comfort. Montaigne was impressed. “All this is not too bad,” he wrote, clearly praising the cannibals. “But what’s the use? They don’t wear breeches” (I.31.159).

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