In Montaigne's essay "Use Makes Perfect" or "Of Practice", he recounts at some length a brush with death he experienced because of a horse-riding accident. He then offers some remarkable reflections on his practice of personalism:
This long story of so light an accident would appear vain enough, were it not for the knowledge I have gained by it for my own use; for I do really find, that to get acquainted with death, needs no more but nearly to approach it. Every one, as Pliny says, is a good doctrine to himself, provided he be capable of discovering himself near at hand. Here, this is not my doctrine, 'tis my study; and is not the lesson of another, but my own; and if I communicate it, it ought not to be ill taken, for that which is of use to me, may also, peradventure, be useful to another.... We hear but of two or three of the ancients, who have beaten this path, and yet I cannot say if it was after this manner, knowing no more of them but their names. No one since has followed the track: 'tis a rugged road, more so than it seems, to follow a pace so rambling and uncertain, as that of the soul; to penetrate the dark profundities of its intricate internal windings; to choose and lay hold of so many little nimble motions; 'tis a new and extraordinary undertaking, and that withdraws us from the common and most recommended employments of the world. 'Tis now many years since that my thoughts have had no other aim and level than myself, and that I have only pried into and studied myself: or, if I study any other thing, 'tis to apply it to or rather in myself.
Talk about making it personal! Here Montaigne demonstrates that he was one of the first to consistently resist the universalist temptation and put all insights to the test (French "essai") of usefulness to himself. Although I do wonder who his "two or three of the ancients" were, of whom we are left "knowing no more of them but their names" (presumably sages who penned no writings, such as Pyrrho or Diogenes), in the end that's unimportant: what matters is the personal practice of self-understanding and self-improvement. Notice Montaigne's observation that personalism is a more rugged road than universalism: it's easy to pontificate about what everyone should do, but much more difficult to find your own path. Indeed, since universalism is what everyone else is doing, it's one of "the common and most recommended employments of the world", in contrast to the "new and extraordinary undertaking" of personal soulcraft and providing an account of your own way of life.
(Cross-posted at Beautiful Wisdom.)
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