French writer Michel de Montaigne in 1580…

French writer Michel de Montaigne in 1580 uses a defense of the beliefs of a fifteenth-century Spaniard as a pretext for presenting his own skeptical views on the futility of reason in his essay Apologie de Raimond Sebond, which will number among the famous apologies of Western literature.

The rationalistic ideal of French courtly education can be seen foreshadowed in Montaigne's Essays, in which the ideal man is described as having a natural, sensible way of life not deeply affected by the perplexities of the time but admitting of pleasure.

He has a “correct” attitude toward the world and people, a certain spiritual freedom, and an independent judgment—all of which, in Montaigne's view, are more important than being steeped in knowledge.

“As lamps are extinguished from too much oil, so is the mind from too much studying.”

As Montaigne comes from a merchant family that had aspired to nobility, there is thus a certain fashionable elitism in his views; he holds, among other things, that courtly education succeeds best when the pupil studies under a private tutor.