Michel de Montaigne retired from public life at thirty-eight to a tower on his estate and began writing essays — a form he effectively invented, from the French for "attempts". They wander: on cannibals, on thumbs, on the education of children, on his own kidney stones. The subject throughout is himself, examined without vanity as a specimen of the species. He later served as mayor of Bordeaux. He is quoted for his scepticism and for his exceptional comfort with not knowing.
