"I do not teach, I tell." This is how Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) characterizes his Essays. Peter Burke, a distinguished expert on the Renaissance, explores why these attempts seem so modern and familiar to us. At the same time, he warns against making Montaigne a contemporary figure. For Montaigne must first be understood in his own time - in his individualism, in his idiosyncratic stance on aesthetic, historical, religious, and political questions. Montaigne's enduring relevance lies in his critique of all intellectual authority and his refusal of any ultimate judgment. Burke highlights the ambiguity and richness of thought in the Essays, which continue to offer a new reading adventure more than four hundred years after their creation.