Viresque acquirit eundo La devise des Essais et ses antécédents

The epigraph finally chosen by Montaigne as a motto for his Essais refers to a formula by Virgil: viresque acquirit eundo, which can be translated literally as “and she gains strength in going on”. Like a human being changing every seven years, if not from minute to minute, the book-child, under the tender yet critical eyes of the author, appears neither exactly the same, nor entirely different.