A sovereign social network
powered by Bitcoin

Essays of Montaigne (Book I) — Chapter 19: Chapter 19: That To Study Philosopy Is To Learn To Die (part 1/2)

To refrain from intercepting an enemy whose banners are in perfect order, to refrain from attacking an army drawn up in calm and confident array:—this is the art of studying circumstances.

[“Why seek to add longer life, merely to renew ill-spent time, and be again tormented?”--Lucretius, iii. 914.]

Having collected an army and concentrated his forces, he must blend and harmonise the different elements thereof before pitching his camp.

[Tu Mu, in this phrase, in his interpretation indicates that trouble should be made for the enemy affecting their "possessions," or, as we might say, "assets," which he considers to be "a large army, a rich exchequer, harmony amongst the soldiers, punctual fulfillment of commands." These give us a whip-hand over the enemy.]

Tsze-chang asked what constituted intelligence. The Master said, 'He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful, may be called intelligent indeed. Yea, he with whom neither soaking slander, nor startling statements, are successful, may be called farseeing.'

I would always have a man to be doing, and, as much as in him lies, to extend and spin out the offices of life; and then let death take me planting my cabbages, indifferent to him, and still less of my gardens not being finished. I saw one die, who, at his last gasp, complained of nothing so much as that destiny was about to cut the thread of a chronicle he was then compiling, when he was gone no farther than the fifteenth or sixteenth of our kings:

Tsze-kung asked, saying, 'What do you say of a man who is loved by all the people of his neighborhood?' The Master replied, 'We may not for that accord our approval of him.' 'And what do you say of him who is hated by all the people of his neighborhood?' The Master said, 'We may not for that conclude that he is bad. It is better than either of these cases that the good in the neighborhood love him, and the bad hate him.'

[“No man is more fragile than another: no man more certain than another of to-morrow.”--Seneca, Ep., 91.]

When he was sending complimentary inquiries to any one in another State, he bowed twice as he escorted the messenger away. 2. Chi K'ang having sent him a present of physic, he bowed and received it, saying, 'I do not know it. I dare not taste it.'

(3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;

Tsze-lu asked about government. The Master said, 'Go before the people with your example, and be laborious in their affairs.' 2. He requested further instruction, and was answered, 'Be not weary (in these things).'

if well supplied with food, he can starve him out; if quietly encamped, he can force him to move.

[Li Ch’uan and Tu Mu, with extraordinary inability to see a metaphor, take these words quite literally of food and drink that have been poisoned by the enemy. Ch’en Hao and Chang Yu carefully point out that the saying has a wider application.]

If you march thirty li with the same object, two-thirds of your army will arrive.

Chi K'ang, distressed about the number of thieves in the state, inquired of Confucius how to do away with them. Confucius said, 'If you, sir, were not covetous, although you should reward them to do it, they would not steal.'

“Manuet,” says he, “opera interrupta, minaeque Murorum ingentes.”

The Master said, 'In hearing litigations, I am like any other body. What is necessary, however, is to cause the people to have no litigations.'

Essays of Montaigne (Book I) — Chapter 16: Chapter 16: A Proceeding Of Some Ambassadors