teaching virtue...

Montaigne, Bacon and Emerson, three masters of the essay form, all acknowledged their debt to Plutarch. In Edmund Barry's book "Emerson's Plutarch" the moral function of the writings of Plutarch as they impacted Montaigne are described thus...

"It was his (Montaigne) aim to apply maxims to life and here he was aided by Plutarch...Montaigne too observes Plutarch's function as a teacher. 'He is a philosopher that teaches us virtue,' he writes...and says...that Plutarch, 'of all the authors I ever conversed with, is he who has best mixed art with nature, and judgement with knowledge.'