Discuss the relationship between knowledge and the self in the prose of Burton and/or Montaigne.

Relationship between Knowledge and Self in Montaigne 's Prose

Michel de Montaigne 's well-known book of Essays was composed as an exercise in self-knowledge carried out for more than twenty years in Montaigne 's private library . The library was a place of solitude as well as a place of knowledge (Ophir , 1991 , 163 . The author 's library has been compared to a scientific laboratory or observatory of the late sixteenth or seventeenth century (Ophir , 163 . But , instead of studying stars and planets , or animals , plants and other living forms on earth , the

author studied himself . According to Montaigne , I am myself the subject of my book it is not reasonable to expect you to waste your leisure on a matter so frivolous and empty (Liukkonen 2008

However , Montaigne 's Essays is not a diary that the reader would find uninteresting to peruse . Rather , the author discusses various subjects , for example , fear , solitude , sleep , human judgment , prayers and war-horses , etc , with reference to himself (De Montaigne , 2006 It is the author 's claim or an underlying assumption of his prose that nothing can be understood without reference to oneself . If I am the author , for example , I must write about how the subject in question has personally affected me or how I came to know what I am writing about So , if I am writing about war horses , I must inform my reader how I came to learn about such horses , if not describe to the reader what I feel riding...