Trying to do what Plutarch did

 Montaigne’s Essays are a wonder to me. I would love to know how he wrote such a book.

Some scholars say Montaigne was trying to emulate Plutarch. Montaigne thought he could learn to write by imitating a master, but as he tried to imitate, he found something original.

Humans learn by emulation. That’s the way a baby learns to walk, by watching others and enduring the bumps. We can say that of people, in general. But the idea gets mushy when you consider individuals. Where do these spectacular individuals learn their craft?

I can see a young Mozart learning his scales by imitating his teacher. But that doesn’t explain the evolution of his piano concertos.

In looking at these creative geniuses, I’m stumped.

Incidentally, Montaigne said he had two masters, not one. He said he followed Plutarch and Seneca.

At times, he claimed his teachers’ good teaching was largely wasted.

 

I have fashioned no sustained intercourse with any solid book except Plutarch and Seneca; like the Danaides, I am constantly dipping into them and then pouring out: I spill some of it on to this paper but next to nothing on to me.

 

At times, he thought otherwise.

 

My book … is built entirely out of their spoils.

 

• Source: Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays, translated by M.A. Screech; London: Penguin Books, 1993, pp. 164, 817.