"Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 16" by Michel de Montaigne is part of a collection of essays written between approximately 1570 and 1592. Montaigne set out to record traits of his own character with complete frankness, never suspecting his introspective experiments would profoundly influence literature and thought. Writing during France's violent religious wars, he questioned human certainty and reason, exploring everything from conscience to trivial matters like smells. His skeptical philosophy asks: what do we truly know about ourselves and the world? (This is an automatically generated summary.)