The Education of Children. Selected, translated and annotated by Rector, Lizzie Eliza

At the order of the future essayist's father, Michel de Montaigne's tutor spoke only Latin to the boy until he was six. This education prepared him well for his diplomatic life in Bordeaux, in which he was intermittently engaged as he composed his Essays. Montaigne is generally credited with originating the personal essay as a literary genre; the topics of his many discourses include morality, politics, and the limitations of human knowledge.