Dissertation without tears
“The formula for writing Essays is rather loose. It was invented by Michel Montaign in the sixteenth century. It was a variation on the sermon. A sermon is traditionally appended to an opening biblical text which it refers, or at least alludes to, the holiday when the sermon was delivered. It is a fantasy or a reverie on a theme suggested by the opening text, ending with reference to the beginning and with a moral as its coda. An essay is similar, though without the opening topical sacred text, or with an opening that refers to a secular topical matter; its quotations are not only from Scriptures but also from the classics. Like the sermon, the essay is a fantasy or a reverie with a moral, but one much more general than that of a sermon, which was usually meant to arouse in the audience their sense of guilt.”
- Professor Joseph Agassi , Dissertation without tears
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