ON FRIENDSHIP by Michel de Montaigne
This was from the Penguin Books “Great Ideas” series, and I had the great idea that this would be an easy, short read (only 115 pages, decent size type) and it might make me look smart.
It took me forever to trudge my way through. And he isn’t a particularly pleasant guy–in a letter he wrote to a madame concerning her child, he writes that
In the case of the subject under discussion, I am incapable of finding a place for that emotion which leads people to cuddle new-born infants while they are still without movements of soul or recognizable features of body to make to make themselves lovable. And I have never willingly allowed them to be nursed in my presence. A true and well-regulated affection should be born, and then increase, as children enable us to get to know them; if they show they deserve it, we should cherish them with fatherly love…
And so on and so forth. Basically, for me, this was merely a novelty to read as I was reading the works of the “originator of the modern essay form.” But mainly it was mentally lugubrious for me. At least, with one or two people out there, I might gain some street cred for having read it.