Abstract

Montaigne’s attitude towards love in the Essais seems most often to be skeptical, even ironic. He asks: what empirical evidence do we have for the existence of genuine love or friendship? The answer most often given is: not much. And yet, in the essay that seems to treat most directly of love and friendship, "De l’amitié”, he finds that his empirical method leads him to the opposite conclusion, even though his amitié with La Boétie seems to be both illicit and impossible. Montaigne goes on to show, almost in spite of himself, that not only does desire lead to wisdom and truth, but that one is brought to desire, and through desire to love, through the written word. The Essais, especially those that treat of desire, such as "Sur des vers de Virgile", are themselves meant – like the representations of desire in Virgil, Lucretius, et al. – to seduce us into wisdom