An essay is a literary piece that is analytic, interpretive, or critical in

nature, and it is generally considerably shorter and less systematic

and formal than a dissertation or thesis. It usually deals with its
subject from a restricted and frequently personal point of view.

Some early treatises, such as those of Cicero on the pleasantness of

old age or the art of "divination," Seneca on anger or clemency,
and Plutarch on the passing of oracles, foreshadow the form and
tone of the essay, but it was not until the late 16th century that the
French writer Michel de Montaigne perfected the flexible,
deliberately nonchalant, and versatile form of the essay. Using the
moniker essai to stress that his compositions were efforts or
endeavors, a stumbling toward the manifestation of his thoughts.