Montaigne's 'Essais' editorial reflection on self-repentance

An editorial from artpress (September 2007) features a passage from Montaigne's 'Essais' (Pléiade-Gallimard edition, page 64, with a reading note by Jacques Henric). The text explores the author's rare repentance and self-contentment, distinguishing between a learned person and a truly capable one. Montaigne asserts that his book and he are inseparable, and judging one judges the other. He reflects on the difficulty of maintaining order in private life, stating he would live the same way again, neither regretting the past nor fearing the future. He criticizes the notion of wisdom as a sour distaste for present things, which wrinkles the mind more than the face. He takes pleasure in being preserved from the contagion of a spoiled age, finding himself guilty of no affliction, vengeance, envy, public offense, novelty, trouble, or broken word. He concludes that he has his own laws and court to judge himself.