Up  to  this  Montaigne  stepped  La  Boetie,
two  years  older  than  he,  his  complement  in
all  things,  his  opposite  in  many — the  Arthur
Hallam  of  the  Renaissance,  calm  yet  fervent,
walking  like  Montaigne  upon  a  level  path,
but  a  path  across  the  heights.  To  Montaigne,
outward  beauty,  as  he  tells  us,  was  all-im-
portant. '  It  holds,'  he  wrote,  c  the  highest
rank  in  human  intercourse — it  reduces  and
possesses  our  judgment,  with  great  authority
and  wondrous  power  to  impress.' l  La  Boetie
was  ugly.2  Montaigne  was  prose — La  Boetie
was  a  poet.  Montaigne  had  no  tast$  for  ties,
and  when  he  took  a  wife,  it  was  purely  for
conventional  reasons  ;  La  Boetie  had  made
a  happy  marriage,  and  enjoyed  the  bonds  that
he  had  formed.  Both  men  desired  to  be  of
public  service — Montaigne  only  so  long  as  it
involved  no  risk  to  himself ;  La  Boetie  at  any

1  Essais,  iii.  12  :  *  De  la  Physionomie.'

2  Ibid.
