Saturday, July 29, 2006

Romeo and Juliette, pub, ignorance

I do not claim to be a smoker, but every now and then, I have a cigar. Once a year I am given a box of 25 Romeo and Juliettes; they last more than a year. We'll put you down as a non-smoker says the doctor, which is fine by me. But what a pleasure, on day like to day, to taste the mellow tobacco, while sitting in the garden with book. The nicotiana, which is just coming into flower, looks on with interest.

In the pub a young man, settles onto a bench, a pint on the table in front of him, with the words: "There's nothing better than a pub on a summer evening." He is right.

The more I read Montaigne the more I love him. He is balanced, entertaining, witty and, though he purports to make judgements only about himself and based on his own experience, modest, honest and unpretentious. Just now I note: "to recognise one's own ignorance is one of the best and surest signs of judgement that I know."

1 comment:

Lucas said...

These entries are very evocative. Thomas Mann's hero in The Magic Mountain smokes Maria Mancinis and there are some descriptions of the organic quality of a cigar. whose outer leaves have liitle pores through which it seems to breathe.