High, high style.

Pleasure is a quality of very little ambition: it thinks itself rich enough of itself without any addition of repute; and is best pleased where most retired. A young man should be whipped who pretends to a taste in wine and sauces; there was nothing which, at that age, I less valued or knew; now I begin to learn; I am very much ashamed on`t; but what should I do?

As high as high style can get. Montaigne’s writing comes from an experienced, wise point of view. Earlier in the essay, he mentioned that youth looks forward and old age looks backward, which is what fuels the tone of passionate melancholy that drives the essay. He indeed writes from a pedestal, taking liberties in language that essayists are not expected to take.
Deeply personal and achingly philosophical, Montaigne decorates, twists and personifies at will. In the passage above, Montaigne explains his first clause through these linguistic liberties. “Pleasure is a quality of very little ambition”- the clause is broad and vague, and Montaigne then proceeds to personify “pleasure”, which “thinks” in the second part of the sentence.
But Montaigne’s stylistic ornamentations aren’t there to show off. This method of getting his point across (pleasure is detached from intellectual ambition) is thoroughly explains by the essay’s style. The language play is there to help the writer deliver his message, it has a purpose.

Later in the essay jealousy has a sister and her name is envy, they’re both dumb so he won’t dwell on them. High style does not mean pompous- in that case, through the use of personification, Montaigne is funny and readable.

Going back to the excerpt on pleasure, Montaigne further grounds his point by setting an anonymous, generalized example, he speaks of a “young man”. He finishes up his point by bringing the idea closer to him and inserting his own experience in the essay- what could be more grounded than explaining a point through anecdote?
First he creates a broad amorphous statement up in the clouds, he captures it with graceful, poetic moves, he brings it down to human level and then close to his- a human, Montaigne himself, was at the center of his point. By the end of the idea, we’re really close:

I am more ashamed and vexed at the occasions that put me upon`t.

And speaking of personal:

do not consider how little it is that is given, but how few have it to give; the value of money alters according to the coinage and stamp of the place.

Montaigne does the opposite in this paragraph. He speaks of female “virtue” but does so at a distance, so far as using euphemisms. This is one of the longer paragraphs in the essay, where the writing really does circumvent the topic, being appropriately delicate and never quite approaching it directly. He knows how close is too close and therefore leaves the personal at a mere “we”, instead of telling us of that one time he wanted to take the local girl’s virtue.