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imagination / self control

An examination of the imagination and the human desire to harness it, through the eyes of Michel de Montaigne, with some commentary by cafe' ground zero.


  • Montaigne on Imagination

    The thesis of the essay, "On Idleness," by Michel de Montaigne(1), (February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592), conveys the message that for us human beings, it is better NOT to abstain from ordered and directed thought, but rather, one should discipline one's mind, i.e. one should seek direction and try to focus on that direction. In his essay, "Of the Power of Imagination," he seems to intentionally seek to raise the value of the imaginative mind. Yet in the former essay, Montaigne does state that an imagination which is left idle is "like a runaway horse, it gives itself a hundred times more trouble thatn it took for others, and gives birth to so many chimeras and fantastic monsters." (2) What horror this might seem to some of the more conventionally minded horse lovers and ranchers! Yet for some equinophiles, who have deep knowledge of horses and their capacities, abilities, and intelligence, this might not seem such a surprise, but rather a delightful affirmation. For Montaigne, and idle imagination is like a fallow land, teeming "with a hundred thousands kinds of wild and useless weeds." In the light of a few hundred years more of research and experience, learning and shared reflections, botanists know that today many of these so-called weeds have much to teach us, as well as little-known medical secrets. However, he brings to the witness stand Virgil(3) and Horace(4) to support his claims. Virgil received, via a Muse, the image of ever mutating forms of light, bouncing off the surfaces of the brazen un and water. Montaigne took this to support his contention that an unfocused aim is of no use to anyone. Perhaps the implication is that a well focused beam, e.g. that which appears out of a lens or prism, is better to us. However, there seems to be a bias, or set of assumed values, inferring that there is in and of itself a wrongness in disorder or chaos. Again the present essayist would like to draw your attention to Montaigne's assertion that [the idle mind] "gives birth to so many chimeras and fantastic monsters, one after another." Yet what does Montaigne choose to do, in the instance in which he has let his own mind "run wild?" (The quotations are mine now). He sets out to capture and tame them by disciplined writing.

    (1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne (2)From Montaigne 1965: 20-1. (3)Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC–19 BC), known in English as Virgil or Vergil, is a Latin poet, the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid, the last being an epic poem of twelve books that became the Roman Empire's national epic. (4)Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading lyric poet in Latin.

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