Whats the name of Montaigne's letter in which he describes the last days of his life & where can I find it?

Answer 1

I think that you refer to the introduction to his essays, "Au Lecteur," "To the Reader," where he says that he does not write for his glory, nor for the reader's profit, but rather to give something of himself to those of his family who will lose him, as they must someday. Rather humorously, he closes with a double meaning, "Therefore, farewell from Montaigne." This means that he closes off all further contact with himself, or that he bids farewell from his country estate.

Answer 2

"In 1578, Montaigne, whose health had always been excellent, started suffering from painful kidney stones, a sickness he had inherited from his father's family. From 1580 to 1581, Montaigne traveled in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, partly in search for a cure. He kept a detailed journal recording various episodes and regional differences. It was published much later, in 1774, under the title Travel Journal."


In the last volume of his essays on Gutenberg, most of the book is about his declining health...

"I consult little about the alterations I feel: for these doctors take
advantage; when they have you at their mercy, they surfeit your ears with
their prognostics; and formerly surprising me, weakened with sickness,
injuriously handled me with their dogmas and magisterial fopperies--one
while menacing me with great pains, and another with approaching death.
Hereby I was indeed moved and shaken, but not subdued nor jostled from my
place; and though my judgment was neither altered nor distracted, yet it
was at least disturbed: 'tis always agitation and combat."

and this...

["The life of a fool is thankless, timorous, and wholly bent upon
the future."--Seneca, Ep:, 15.]

"Nevertheless I compose myself to lose mine without regret; but withal as
a thing that is perishable by its condition, not that it molests or
annoys me. Nor does it properly well become any not to be displeased
when they die, excepting such as are pleased to live. There is good
husbandry in enjoying it: I enjoy it double to what others do; for the
measure of its fruition depends upon our more or less application to it.
Chiefly that I perceive mine to be so short in time, I desire to extend
it in weight; I will stop the promptitude of its flight by the
promptitude of my grasp; and by the vigour of using it compensate the
speed of its running away. In proportion as the possession of life is
more short, I must make it so much deeper and fuller."

You can read that final volume, #19, here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3599/3599.txt

(If you want to save time, open that file then click edit at the top of your screen, click "Find On Page" and type in the word "death" to find all the instances where it occurs in the book. (Which is pretty often... :)

(The problem in answering this question is, 'when WASN'T Montaigne talking about dying!')