Name: Shazeer Moon

Roll Number: 2K16/Eng/127

Class : BS Part IV Literature

Teacher Concerned: Madam Paras Baloch

Topic : Essays of Montaigne

 Of Friendship

So in the second part I am like the painter, but in the first and better part, I fall very
short of him. I don’t have the powers to produce a rich and finely polished piece. I
have therefore thought it fit to borrow from Etienne de la Boetie, a piece that will
honour and adorn the rest of my work. It is a discourse called ‘Voluntary Servitude’.
Etienne wrote it before he was even eighteen years old, and it has since run through
the hands of men of great learning, all of whom praise it, because it is finely written
and as full as anything can be. And yet, one can confidently say it is far short of what
he was able to do. In the more mature age when I knew him, Etienne had decided to
commit his thought to writing, the way that I am doing now. We would have had a
great many rare things that would have rivaled the best writings of antiquity if he had
done so, for I know no man comparable to him. But he left nothing behind except this
discourse, which he bequeathed to me along with his library and other papers, in his
last will.

I came to know of Etienne because of this discourse, and only became acquainted
with him long after he had written it. This discourse, in fact, proved to be the first
cause and foundation of our friendship, which we afterwards improved and
maintained for as long as God allowed us to be together. Our friendship was so
perfect, inviolate, and entire that none like it could be found in any story, and
amongst men of our time there is no sign or trace of such a thing. So much
concurrence is required for such a friendship that it is much if fortune allows it to
pass even once in three ages.

There is nothing to which nature seems to make us as inclined as to society.

Aristotle said that good legislators respected friendship more than justice. The most
supreme point of its perfection is that those who derive pleasure, profit, public or
private interest, or any nourishment from a friendship, other than friendship itself,
cannot enjoy one as beautiful and generous as those that don’t. Also, the four
ancient kindnesses: natural, social, hospitable, and sexual – either separately or
jointly – cannot help in making a true and perfect friendship.The relationship of
children and their parents is based on respect. Friendship is nourished by a
communication that is impossible between parent and child, due to great differences.
This communication would offend the duties of nature, for neither are all the secret
thoughts of fathers fit to be communicated to their children (this would lead to an
indecent familiarity), nor can advice and reproofs (one of the principal offices of
friendship) be performed by the son towards the father. There are some countries
where it was custom for children to kill their fathers, and others where the fathers
killed their children, to avoid their being an impediment to each other’s lives.
Naturally, the expectations of the one depend upon the ruin of the other.
Many great philosophers have made nothing of parent-child relationships. When
Aristippus was pressed about the affection he owed to his children, he spat forcefully
and said that that too had come out of him, and that we also breed worms and lice.
Plutarch refused to reconcile with his brother, saying he would not give him extra
importance just for ‘coming out of the same hole’.
The word itself is fine and delectable, and for that reason Etienne and I called each
other brother. But the complication of interests, the division of estates, and the fact
that the wealth of the one is also the property of the other weakens and relaxes the
fraternal bond. Brothers who pursue their fortunes by advancing along the same path
often jostle and hinder one another. Besides, why do the correspondences of
manners, parts, and inclinations that beget true and perfect friendships have to meet
in blood relations? Father and son may have completely different temperaments; my
son, or my brother, may be passionate, ill-natured, or a fool. These are friendships
more imposed on us by the law and natural obligation and less by choice.
Personally, however, I have not experienced anything to corroborate, as I have the
best and most indulgent father, even now when I am so old, that ever was. And he
himself is descended from a family for many generations famous and exemplary for
brotherly concord. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Love my all friends.

Of The Education
Education is a basic need of every human in the life.We must get it from childhood.
It develop of standard of living and help us to guide our future.We have to go through
all the authors and their life style and we would learn the element of education as
their basic tool.
It’s very difficult to read into what a child’s natural talents are and how to cultivate
them. However, nature may make it impossible to teach some children certain things
because they don’t have the natural capacity for the subject.A tutor must have a
stronger emphasis on good morals and understanding than on pure booklearning.
Also, he can’t give the student more than he can handle. The best is to establish the
student’s sense of perception and teach him how to figure things out for himself.
There should be an equal amount of exchange between the teacher and the student.
The tutor must monitor the student’s progress and make adjustments according to
the student’s changing needs as he grows.Avoid pure regurgitation of facts and
check for understanding along the way. The kid must be able to look at something
from many different angles. If learning becomes too difficult without results, the
student will grow a distate for learning altogther.
He should be made to examine everything and not just take someone’s word on the
matter based on authority. If he does this, his mind will become cemented and he’ll
feel like he knows everything. He’ll learn to stop looking which will make him stop
finding.Real learning and wisdom come from taking what you’ve read and taken in
and combining them to form your own thoughts. You shouldn’t put out a list of
everything you’ve read out on display. What’s really important is the thoughts that
these books have given birth to. Understanding improves perception and that
perception will benefit everything you do and all the future learning you will do.
Travelling and studying away from home is very important. The world is where
everything happens and locking a kid away in a room trivializes the knowledge
because he’ll never experience it first hand and never be able to use it right away.
However, it’s important for kids to be removed from the smothering affection of the
parents. They will get too dependent and therefore unable to work or experience
more unpleasant but absolutely necessary things in life. In order for a tutor’s
authority to become complete, the child must be removed from the parents so as not
to create a conflict in authority between the two.In general, people focus too much on
their own thoughts, knowledge and desires and not enough on what others have to
offer. In order to do that, we have to have instilled in us a sense of modesty and
penchant for silence in order to listen. Arguments should be chosen and constructed
with subtlety, care, brevity and pertinence. However, the truth should be held in the
highest regard, so much so that you should yield to it whenever you’re in the wrong.
Giving a student favor and advantage will ultimately hinder his ability to fight through
situations in life which will give him no favors, if not a disadvantage. Reason and
virtue should be inherent in everything in the child’s words, thoughts and actions.
There are snakes everywhere, so you will have to have your wits about you in every
situation you find yourself. You should be pleasant so as to encourage the right
people liking you and being on your side and also not to give people a reason to
dislike you.
Studying history is important because the past has so many lessons to teach us
about how to act now. There are so many people throughout history whose example
we should follow or not follow. Learning about their lives and circumstances can give
us valuable insight into our own times and people today.Going out into the world with
the knowledge and wisdom the child has gained along the way will not only give him
the sense of accomplishment but also the ability to put that wisdom and knowledge
to good use.
The liberal arts are good for providing real ways of learning how to live our lives and
examples of how to do so or how not to do so. This sense of morality will be coupled
with the ability to use logic and understanding of the physical world. With mastery of
the physical world and morality, there’s very little that can stop him. Also, physical
exercise is not to be neglected because he will need a healthy body for his healthy
mind. This includes both mental and physical moderation to preserve himself.
Staying away from idle chatter and bullshit is important. Conversations don’t
necessarily have to be serious and intense but something other than pure
entertainment should be taken away from them. All the conversations that have
happened and are happening right now should give the reader or listener some sort
of ability to learn how to live his life better through other people’s thoughts and
experiences. This means he will have to go out and talk to people in the world. He’ll
probably have to learn other languages to find people with a dramatically different
disposition and learn from them.

It’s important to introduce an element of fun into learning in order to keep his interest
and to allow him to learn in different ways. This includes physical activity, games and
laughter. This will not only engage him but more him more well-rounded. Indulging
children is bad but making them prisoners in a jail called “school” is even worse.
Beating them and berating them is not going to make them want to learn.
Hence Montaigne concluded that education is basic need of all the people in society
because it helps a person to develop the standards of living and decorating the
character.

Of Fear

Author can’t say what it is that causes fear to have the impact on us that it does. It is
a strange passion; the physicians say there is no other that makes our judgment
falter so much. I myself have seen many become frantic from fear, and even in those
that are very calm normally, it causes a terrible confusion and shock. I’m not talking
just about the ‘vulgar sort’, to whom fear means their departed rising up from the
grave, or werewolves, or nightmares or phantoms, but also of soldiers, over whom
fear should have the least power. Fear can convert armed squadrons into flocks of
sheep, make their spears and swords into reeds and blades of grass, their friends
into their enemies, and the French flag into the Spanish!

When Rome was seized by Mr. Bourbon, a man guarding the city was seized with
such fear that he ran directly into the enemy, thinking he was retreating into the city.
Bourbon’s army thought he was advancing to attack, and drew their weapons. When
the man at last realized his mistake, he retreated blindly, at full speed; and ended up
in the middle of an open field. He was unharmed, but another guard who reacted in a
similar way was not so lucky, and was killed. Another gentleman, in the same battle,
was so seized by fear that he sank to the floor, stone-dead, without being wounded
or hurt at all.
Sometimes fear adds wings to the heels. Sometimes it nails them to the ground. The
Emperor Theophilius, upon losing a battle in Spain, was so astonished that he could
not move, and one of his commanders had to go up to him and tell him, ‘Sir, if you do
not follow me, I will kill you; for it is better you should lose your life than, by being
taken, lose your empire’. But that’s what fear can do; it can deprive us of all sense of
duty or honour.
The thing in this world that I am most afraid of is fear, that feeling along, more than
any other accident. Fear can drive out all intelligence from the mind. Take the story
of Pompey’s friends: they had witnessed his horrible murder on their ship, but when
they saw enemy Egyptian ships coming towards them, they were possessed with
such great alarm that they could think of nothing but fleeing. Only when they had
reached safety did they grieve for their captain. The more potent passion had, till
then, suspended their tears.

Those that have been injured in a skirmish, even if they are wounded and bloody,
may be asked the next day to attack once more, but those who have become truly
afraid of their enemy can never again be made to do so much as look him in the
face.
Those that are in immediate fear of losing their property, of banishment, or of
slavery, live in perpetual anguish and lose all appetite and all calm, whereas those
that are actually poor, slaves, or exiles often live their lives as happily as the next
man. And then those who, tired of being perpetually in fear, have hanged or drowned
or shot themselves lead us to believe that fear can be more persistently intrusive,
more unbearable, than death itself.

The Greeks acknowledged another kind of fear, different from those we have so far
discussed: the fear that surprises us without any visible cause. Whole nations and
armies can be struck from it, like an impulse from heaven. Diodorus Siculus, the
Greek historian, calls this fear a ‘panic terror’ and relates the story of Carthage
(ancient North-African city near present-day Tunis), where this type of fear took root.
Nothing was heard in Carthage when this struck except for frightened voices and
crying, and residents ran out of their houses in alarm, and attacked, wounded, and
killed one another, as if they had been enemies that had come to attack the city.
Everything was in disorder and fury until, with prayers and sacrifices, they appeased
their gods.