Part 3

(From the "Institutes")

JOACHIM DU BELLAY--(Born about 1524, died in 1560.)

Why Old French Was Not as Rich as Greek and Latin.

(From the "Défense et Illustration de la Langue Françoise." Translated by Eric Arthur Bell)

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE--(Born in 1533, died in 1592.)

I A Word to His Readers.

(From the preface to the "Essays." Translated by John Florio)

II Of Society and Solitude.

(From the essay entitled "Of Three Commerces." The Cotton translation, revised by W. C. Hazlitt)

III Of His Own Library.

(From the essay entitled "Of Three Commerces." The Cotton translation, revised by W. C. Hazlitt)

IV That the Soul Discharges Her Passions upon False Objects Where True Ones Are Wanting.

(From the essay with that title. The Cotton translation)

V That Men Are Not to Judge of Our Happiness Till After Death.

(From the essay with that title. The Cotton translation)

RENÉ DESCARTES--(Born in 1596, died in 1650.)

Of Material Things and of the Existence of God.

(From the "Meditations." Translated by John Veitch)

DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD--(Born in France in 1613, died in 1680.)

Selections from the "Maxims."

(Translated by Willis Bund and Hain Friswell)

BLAISE PASCAL--(Born in 1623, died in 1662.)

Of the Prevalence of Self-Love.

(From the "Thoughts." Translated by C. Kegan Paul)

MADAME DE SÉVIGNÉ--(Born in Paris in 1626, died in 1696.)

I Great News from Paris.

(From a letter dated Paris, December 15, 1670)

II An Imposing Funeral Described.