The teaching of Montaigne was expounded by Pierre Charron (1541-1603), a lawyer, who took orders, and had written against the League and the Protestants, before he fell under the influence of the author of the _Essays_. His most famous--or rather, his one surviving--work, the _Traité de la Sagesse_ (1601),[115] is a restatement in more scholastic form of the ideas of Montaigne. Charron also drew largely, for he was not by any means an original writer, on Guillaume du Vair (1556-1621). Du Vair, who is considered one of the best prose-writers of his time, was the author of many treatises on philosophical subjects;[116] but he is remembered mainly for his famous _Suasion_, or plea for the Salic Law, delivered before the Estates summoned by the League in 1593. He represented the magistracy, and it is said that his argument persuaded the Estates to reject the candidature of the Infanta of Spain, who had been brought forward by the extreme Catholic party as rival to Henry IV. FOOTNOTES: [104] The true title, which is too characteristic not to be given in full, is, “Des Sages et Royales Œconomies domestiques, politiques, et militaires de Henri le Grand, le prince des vertus, des armes, et des lois, et le père en effet [i.e., _en realité_] de ses peuples françois. Et des servitudes utiles, obéissantes, convenables, et administrations loyales de Maximilien de Béthune, l’un des plus confidents familiers et utiles soldats et serviteurs du grand Mars des François. Dédiés à la France, à tous les bons soldats et tous peuples François.” It is described as printed at Amestelredam (Amsterdam), at the sign of the three immortal virtues crowned with amaranth--_i.e._, Faith, Hope, Charity (of which last Sully had no great share), by Alethinosgraphe of Clearétimélée, and Graphexechon of Pistariste--_i.e._, Veracious-Writer of Glory-Virtue-Care, and Emeritus Secretary of High Probity. The _Œconomies Royales_ are included by M. Petitot in his collection of memoirs, 2nd series, vols. i.-ix. [105] These memoirs are included in the great collections of Petitot, and Michaud and Poujoulat. M. Zeller, in two volumes of his excellent _Histoire de France racontée par les contemporains_, has made up a consecutive story by extracts from the writers named above and others. No other literature could supply so much good reading of the same kind, and they are to be obtained for the “ridiculous sum” of tenpence each. [106] Petitot, vols. xxvi.-xxviii. [107] The memoirs are printed in the thirty-fourth volume of Petitot. [108] Ed. of M. L. Lalanne, 1854. [109] Much remained unprinted till it was published by MM. Réaume and Caussade. [110] The _Commentaries_ of Monluc are included in Petitot’s Collection, vols. xx.-xxii., but the definitive edition is that of M. Alphonse de Ruble, published by the Société de l’Histoire de France. The first three volumes contain the _Commentaries_; the fourth and fifth the _Letters_, which M. de Ruble discovered in Russia.