The "moments of life" inserted in the Essais are drawn either from books Montaigne has read, or from his personal experience, according to an alternative that reconduces the two ends of the gradation leading from the simple witness to the "wise man", both equally and exclusively worthy of credence.
In a lengthy 1588 addition at the end of the chapter "De la force de l'imagination" (I, 21), Montaigne justifies the implausibility of some of his anecdotes by disclaiming all responsibility: "For the stories I borrow, I return them to the conscience of those from whom I take them". "He even admits to willingly choosing the lectio difficilior of a story, as being the "rarest and most memorable" version. Montaigne thus shows himself to be little historian in this approach, which consists in seeking "what can happen" rather than what has happened, or to put it another way, advice rather than event, intention rather than fortune.
And yet, Montaigne is more scrupulous than even historians when it comes to historical fidelity to the slightest and most incidental circumstances of the events to which, in his opinion, life depends: he demonstrates, with regard to testimony, the scrupulous doubt of the magistrate. Thus, it seems less risky to him to comment on the historians of Antiquity than to write present-day history, whose narrative is necessarily based on "popular foy". An avid reader of historians, he refuses to write the Memoirs of his time himself - which would be tantamount to becoming a writer rather than a historian - out of an awareness of the weakness of testimony. This refusal led to the adoption of a style that was part short story, part magistrate's report.
In the Essais , then, the only narratives we find are "tales" recounting features and incidents, with a sense of detail befitting the cut-and-dried style of the magistrate. The writing of life here takes the form of a report, a record, in keeping with the qualification of the Essais as a register or a role. Montaigne in fact proceeds to record what is worthy of note - hence the importance of the adjective notable - in the manner of the simplest or wisest historians: "Finally, all this fricassee that I dabble in is but a register of the trials of my life, which is, for internal health, exemplary enough to take instruction against the grain" (III, 13). This defines the Essais as a "counter-example" life, a register of contradictions and counter-examples, and the term essai as "failure" and "inabuctance". This comparison with the magistrate's register further reaffirms the crucial relationship between writing and life: the Essays reveal their kinship with the hand-courant and the account book, charged with "keeping a register", recording and collecting life, according to the very etymology of the term register, which refers to the Latin verb regerere "to transcribe, to report" and to the expression res gestae "things done" - "current affairs" as it were, as opposed to "high deeds".
