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366 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
Of th' traiversall world, age doth the nature change,
And all things from one state must to another range,
No one thing like it selfe remaines, all things doe passe,
Nature doth change, and drive to change, each thing that was.
And then we doe foolishly feare a kind of death,
whenas we have already past and dayly passe to many
others; for, not only (as Heraclitus said) the death of
fire is a generation of ayre: and the death of ayre a
generation of water: but also we may most evidently
see it in our selves. The flower of age dieth, fadeth
and fleeteth, when age comes upon us, and youth
endeth in the flower of a full growne mans age: childhood
in youth and the first age dieth in infancie: and
yesterday endeth in this day, and to day shall die in
to morrow. And nothing remaineth or ever continueth
in one state. For to prove it, if we should ever continue
one and the same, how is it then that now we
rejoyce at one thing, and now at another ? How comes
it to passe we love things contrary, or we hate them,
or we love them, or we blame them ? How is it that
we have different affections, holding no more the same
sense in the same thought? For it is not likely that
without alteration we should take other passions, and
what admitteth alterations, continueth not the same;
and if it be not one selfe same, then it is not: but
rather with being all one, the simple being doth also
change, ever becoming other from other. And by
•consequence Natures senses are deceived and lie falsly;
taking what appeareth for what is, for want of truly
knowing what it is that is. But then what is it that
is indeed ? That which is eternall, that is to say, that
which never had birth, nor ever shall have end; and
to which no time can bring change or cause alteration.
For time is a fleeting thing, and which appeareth as
in a shadow, with the matter ever gliding, alwaies
fluent without ever being stable or permanent; to
whom rightly belong these termes, Before and After,
and it Hath beene, or Shall be. Which at first sight
doth manifestly shew that it is not a thing which is:
for it were great sottishnesse and apparent falsehood,