vorable because the longer one lives, the more awful and depressing things one experiences. He says we must learn to suffer whatever we cannot avoid (page 394). The longer one prolongs their life though, the more suffering one has to endure. When a person is younger there is an equal distribution of good and bad experiences. On page 394 he speaks of these experiences, Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of discords as well as of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. If a musician liked only some of them, what could he sing? He has got to know how to use all of them and blend them together. So too must we with good and ill, which are one substance with our life. As a person increases in years they encounter less good and more pain and heartache. The reason for this pain and heartache can be clarified by the sudden increase in illness when one grows older. Montaigne says vice, death, poverty, illness are weighty subjects and they do indeed weigh on us (page 261). The onset of years also allows one to see more death around them. It can be said that seeing people suffer causes people to suffer.The viewpoint of Michel de Montaigne is that growing older is inescapable and leads to an increase of discomfort through the latter part of ones life. Though Montaigne has a strong dislike for the process of aging; he still finds comfort in certain things. Philosophy and children bring him great joy and encouragement. Montaigne states that since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? They teach us to live when life is over (page 57). He needs to be drenched in philosophy and the youths innocence in order to survive the last few years before his demise....
