Montaigne’s annotations on his copy of Lucretius’s poem De rerum natura reveal that he immerses himself in Lucretius’s world of atoms to the point of toying with the idea of a future version of himself, ‘alius montanus’. Montaigne imagines that this future self would be formed centuries after his death from the same atoms which constitute his current self. Whilst the Essais are certainly concerned with posterity and the survival of Montaigne’s identity and personality through the text, Montaigne’s annotations on his Lucretius privately consider an alternative legacy and a different kind of afterlife. This is not so much a question of being remembered by posterity as much as it is Montaigne imagining his own posterity. As Montaigne casts himself into the future, he contemplates whether this future self would be consubstantial with his present self in the way that he envisages the Essais to be. The Essais provide a repository of memory and personal experiences from which a reader can reconstruct Montaigne, but is it possible that the atoms forming a future Montaigne would transmit these memories and experiences which are essential to a reconstruction of his identity and self?

中文翻译：

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另一个蒙田：想象原子的来世

Montaigne在Lucretius的诗歌《 de rerum natura》的复制本中的注解表明，他沉浸在Lucretius的原子世界中，以玩弄自己未来版本“ alius montanus”的想法。蒙田（Montaigne）设想，这个未来的自我将在他死后几个世纪后由构成他当前自我的相同原子形成。尽管Essais肯定会通过文字关注后代以及Montaigne身份和个性的生存，但Montaigne在其Lucretius上的注解私下里考虑了另一种遗产和另一种来世。这不仅仅是后代要记住的问题，还不如蒙田（Montaigne）想象自己的后代。当蒙田（Montaigne）投身于未来时，他以他所设想的Essais的方式来思考这个未来的自我是否会与他现在的自我相辅相成。Essais提供了一个记忆和个人经历的资料库，读者可以从中重建蒙田，但构成未来蒙田的原子是否有可能传播这些记忆和经历，这对于重建其身份和自我至关重要？