Either Way
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Text length: 1,530 words
Excerpts from 'That Men by Various Ways Arrive at the Same End'
By Michel de Montaigne (1532-1592)
, Essays, Book I, Chapter 1, originally published 1588, Translated by Charles Cotton (1630-1687), ed. by William Carew Hazilitt, 1877
Contributed by Karsten Zimmerman
Images used by courtesy of the City of Weinsberg, Germany
An opponent's reaction is often irrational and thus cannot always be predicted nor directly influenced
What works well with one opponent might prove fatal with another one
It is essential to be flexible in choosing the appropriate strategy with a given opponent and to recognize when an unorthodox approach may be the most effective
Keywords:
History, war, battle, defeat, victory, mercy, slaughter, nobility, virtue, pity, clemency, honor, bravery, fury, massacre, emotions, irrationality
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Summary
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n 1571, the powerful Bordeaux politician Michel de Montaigne, then only aged 38, retired from his parliament office to lead the peaceful life of a reclusive author. In the first of his illustrious Essays, Montaigne treats of war and history - subjects appropriate to a nobleman. Montaigne introduces the irrational - astonishment, ecstasy, and the fury of battle - and shows how unpredictable are the reactions of even great, brave, and virtuous men.
Using a number of (sometimes gory) historical examples, Montaigne argues that "We reach the same end by different means". Some victims submit to their enemies and are spared while others are killed. Some victims proudly resist their assailants and are butchered while others find mercy. Montaigne concludes that humans are indeed a vain, fickle and unstable subject and that circumstances and emotions conspire to produce unpredictable (and sometimes unpleasant) outcomes.
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Steadfastness elicits pity
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he most usual way of appeasing the indignation of such as we have any way offended, when we see them in possession of the power of revenge, and find that we absolutely lie at their mercy, is by submission, to move them to commiseration and pity; and yet bravery, constancy, and resolution, however quite contrary means, have sometimes served to produce the same effect.
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Emperor Conrad III
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he Emperor Conrad III, having besieged Guelph, Duke of Bavaria, [In 1140, in Weinsberg, Upper Bavaria.] would not be prevailed upon, what mean and unmanly satisfactions soever were tendered to him, to condescend to milder conditions than that the ladies and gentlewomen only who were in the town with the duke might go out without violation of their honour, on foot, and with so much only as they could carry about them. Whereupon they, out of magnanimity of heart, presently contrived to carry out, upon their shoulders, their husbands and children, and the duke himself; a sight at which the emperor was so pleased, that, ravished with the generosity of the action, he wept for joy, and immediately extinguishing in his heart the mortal and capital hatred he had conceived against this duke, he from that time forward treated him and his with all humanity.
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Edward, the Black Prince
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dward, Prince of Wales (the same who so long governed our Guienne, a personage whose condition and fortune have in them a great deal of the most notable and most considerable parts of grandeur), having been highly incensed by the Limousins, and taking their city by assault, was not, either by the cries of the people, or the prayers and tears of the women and children, abandoned to slaughter and prostrate at his feet for mercy, to be stayed from prosecuting his revenge; till, penetrating further into the town, he at last took notice of three French gentlemen, who with incredible bravery alone sustained the power of his victorious army. Then it was that consideration and respect unto so remarkable a valour first stopped the torrent of his fury, and that his clemency, beginning with these three cavaliers, was afterwards extended to all the remaining inhabitants of the city.
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Prince Scanderbeg
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canderbeg, Prince of Epirus, pursuing one of his soldiers with purpose to kill him, the soldier, having in vain tried by all the ways of humility and supplication to appease him, resolved, as his last refuge, to face about and await him sword in hand: which behaviour of his gave a sudden stop to his captain's fury, who, for seeing him assume so notable a resolution, received him into grace; an example, however, that might suffer another interpretation with such as have not read of the prodigious force and valour of that prince.
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