The Pros And Cons Of Barbarians

Although the nation has been fashioned very little by the human mind” (9515), Montaigne believes that “there is nothing barbarous and savage in that nation” (2515) and that French were so blinded by their own corrupted practices that they could not see how “whole noble and generous the nation’s practices were. The Europeans had a well-developed society that valued inventions, which was extremely different from the Nature that prevailed in the New World. Montaigne argues that “a man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice” (2515), which explains why the French saw that nation as inferior. To the French “there Is always the perfect religion, the perfect government, the perfect and accomplished manners in all things” (2515), but it was different for that nature as they remained in “wild’ life style with no stablished government or

What they called barbarians remained “alive and vigorous [to] their genuine, their most useful and natural, virtues and properties” whereas the Europeans have damaged their way of living “to gratify [their] corrupted taste” (2515). Using an analogy of a wild fruit, Montagne argues that there is still excellence in the cannibals since their “savor and delicacy [remain] quite excellent, even to [their] state” (2515). Moreover, the French “have so overloaded the beauty and richness of [mother Nature] by [their] inventions that [they] have quite smothered her” (2515). Nevertheless, through the barbarians, mother Nature makes “her purity shines forth”, putting “wonderfully to shame [their]vain and frivolous attempts (92515) and inventions. Montaigne only think of the nation as barbarian since ‘they have been fashioned very little by the human mind” (92515) and that’s beautiful in its own way. They have beautiful traditions, and even the fact that they eat humans is less horrifying than the Europeans’