Montaigne's "Of Friendship" and "Of Solitude": Passages for Textual Analysis

At our meeting on next Monday, we'll talk about the questions on pages 127 to 129 and the textual passages below.  I usually pick passages that either (a) leave me baffled on first reading, or (b) ring true and are artfully stated.

From "On Friendship"

pages 108 to 109, starting "And that other, licentious Greek love ..." and ending "Because it was he, because it was I."

pages 110 to 111, starting "When Laelius," and ending "more readily than to myself."

page 112, from "Eudaimidas of Corinth" to "holding their weddings on the same day"


From "Of Solitude"

pages 118 to 119, from "Now the aim of all solitude" to "he took himself along with him."

page 120, from "We should have wife, children, goods, and above all health," to "Virtue, says Antisthenes, is content with itself, without rules, without words, without deeds."

page 124, from "This occupation with books" to "I am one of those who think that their benefits cannot counterbalance this loss."

page 125, from "Seek no longer that the world should speak of you" until the end of the piece.

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

This month's selection, "Of Friendhip" and "Of Solitude" form a "boxed set."  The first is a eulogy to Montaigne's deceased friend, Etienne de la Boétie, the second a paean to the solitary, contemplative life. The translator of these essais, Donald Frame, has written of Montaigne, "His greatest attraction for most readers is that the book reveals a man and that the man becomes a friend and often another self."