This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 Excerpt: ... 1908. sequence the results of his reading, reflection, and personal thoughts. The problem is to establish the exact chronology of this intellectual activity. Thus we shall avoid "falling into the traditional error of mistaking a transient opinion for the final expression of his personality, and, through the confusion of dates, of introducing contradiction and incoherence into his ideas".1 Furthermore, we shall learn how his inner life has developed. His life and his books deposit on his mind successive 'strata' of experience. From each stratum he attempts to learn some lesson, and, each time, the succeeding stratum shows him the insufficiency of his ideas and raises the problem again.... It is this romance of an intellect that fascinates and instructs the psychologist. To trace it we need as many dates as possible.2 First Chronological Data It is known, before any detailed research, that Montaigne withdrew to his chateau and began working on the Essais in 1571; that Books I and II appeared in 1580; that Book III and about six hundred additions came out in 1588; that, beginning in 1588, correcting and enlarging a copy of the 1588 edition, Montaigne was preparing a new edition, which his death, on September 13, 1592, prevented his issuing. We possess this copy ('Exemplair