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1 - The Possibility of Their Being Otherwise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2014

Elizabeth Guild
Affiliation:
Lectures in French at the University of Cambridge, and is a Fellow of Robinson College
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Summary

Je ne hay point les fantasies contraires aux miennes

Consider this short passage from an early chapter in the first book of the Essais:

Feu mon pere, homme, pour n'estre aydé que de l'experience et du naturel, d'un jugement bien net, m'a dict autrefois qu'il avoit desiré mettre en train qu'il y eust és villes certain lieu designé, auquel ceux qui auroient besoin de quelque chose, se peussent rendre et faire enregistrer leur affaire à un officier estably pour cet effect, comme: Je cherche à vendre des perles, je cherche des perles à vendre. Tel veut compagnie pour aller à Paris; tel s'enquiert d'un serviteur … qui cecy, qui cela, chacun selon son besoing. Et semble que ce moyen de nous entr'advertir apporteroit non legiere commodité au commerce publique: car à tous coups il y a des conditions qui s'entrecherchent, et, pour ne s'entr'entendre, laissent les hommes en extreme necessité. (p. 223)

(My late father, a man of very clear judgement for one who had only experience and natural talent to draw on, once told me that he had wanted to arrange for there to be a designated place in our towns where those who needed something could go to register their requirements with an officer appointed for this purpose. For instance: I want to sell some pearls, I want to buy some pearls. Someone wants company for the journey to Paris; someone is looking for a servant … one man this, another that, each according to his need.

Type
Chapter
Information
Unsettling Montaigne
Poetics, Ethics and Affect in the Essais and Other Writings
, pp. 11 - 39
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2014

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