Montaigne on Prognostications

In On Prognostications, we have Montaigne quoting Lucan with the following:

O Ruler of Olympus, why did it please thee to add more care to worried mortals by letting them learn of future slaughters by means of cruel omens! Whatever thou hast in store, do it unexpectedly; let the minds of men be blind to their future fate: let him who fears, still cling to hope!

The Mystery of the Montaigne's Misshapen Lumps

I remember a while ago reading the following passage in Montaigne's Essays and being thoroughly perplexed:

...just as a woman left alone may sometimes be seen to produce shapeless lumps of flesh but need to be kept busy by a semen other than her own in order to produce good natural offspring...

Thankfully, I've since gotten my hands onto Screech's translation of the Essays, and a happy footnote at the bottom of the page explains most things:

The human egg not yet having been discovered, many believed with Galen that children were produced by an intermingling of a (weaker) female semen with the male's. By itself the female semen could at times produce moles, a misshapen lump.

Montaigne Against Empty Learning

In Montaigne's essay, On the Education of Children, is found the following anecdote against prolixity and empty formalities:

The Samian ambassadors had come to Cleomenes, King of Sparta, prepared with a fine long speech urging him to declare war against the tyrant Polycrates. After hearing them to the end, the Spartan King gave them their answer: 'As for your introduction and exordium, I no longer remember them, or the middle of your speech either; and as for your conclusion, I will do nothing of the sort.'