Introduction
In 1571, aged 38, busy lawyer and courtier Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) retired to the library of his residence in the Dordogne and began writing essays on a wide range of subjects. His solitude was dear to him and his wife Françoise and daughter Léonore let him have it; but he did not spend it entirely alone.
HE took his labours easily, and we need by no means picture him as always reading or writing in his hermitage. He loved idling there by himself, or with no other companion than his cat. This cat he delighted in watching, much as Anatole France likes to watch his dog.
“When,” he says, “I play with my cat, who knoweth whether she is using me as a way of passing her time even more than I use her for the same purpose? We entertain one another reciprocally with our cunning tricks. If I have my hour for advancing or refusing, so hath she.”
Montaigne was not merely amused by animals, he had a real love for them.