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MONTESQUIEU, CHARLES LOUIS DE SECONDA...
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See also:MONTESQUIEU, See also: He also wrote much less serious things, and it was during the earlier years of his presidency that he finished, if he did not begin, the Lettres persanes. They were completed before 1721, and appeared in that year anonymously, with See also:Cologne on the title-See also:page, but they were really printed and published at See also:Amsterdam. In the See also:guise of letters written by and to two Persians of distinction travelling in See also:Europe, Montesquieu not only satirized unmercifully the social, See also:political, ecclesiastical and See also:literary follies of his See also:day in See also:France, but indulged in a See also:great See also:deal of the See also:free See also:writing which was characteristic of the See also:tale-tellers of the See also:time. But what scandalized See also:grave and precise readers naturally attracted the See also:majority, and the Lettres persanes were very popular, passing, it is said, through four See also:editions within the year, besides piracies. Then the See also:vogue suddenly ceased, or at least editions ceased for nearly nine years to appear. It is said that a formal ministerial See also:prohibition was the cause of this, and it is not improbable; for, though the See also:regent and See also:Guillaume See also:Dubois must have enjoyed the See also:book thoroughly, they were both shrewd enough to perceive that underneath its playful exterior there See also:lay a spirit of
very inconvenient See also:criticism of abuses in See also: In 1725 Montesquieu was elected a member of the Academy, but an almost obsolete See also:rule requiring See also:residence in See also:Paris was appealed to, and the See also:election was annulled. It is doubtful whether a hankering after Parisian society, or an ambition to belong to the Academy, or a See also:desire to devote himself to literary pursuits of greater importance, or See also:simple weariness of not wholly congenial See also:work determined him to give up his Bordeaux office. In 1726 he sold the See also:life-See also:tenure of his office, reserving the reversion for his son, and went to live in the capital, returning, however, for half of each year to La See also:Bride. There was now no further formal obstacle to his reception in the Academie Francaise, but a new one arose. Ill-wishers had brought the Lettres persanes specially under the See also:minister See also:Andre Hercule de See also:Fleury's See also:attention, and Fleury, a precisian in many ways, was shocked by them. There are various accounts of the way in which the difficulty was got over, but all seem to agree that Montesquieu made concessions which were more effectual than dignified. He was elected and received in January 1728. Almost immediately afterwards he started on a tour through Europe to observe men, things and constitutions. He travelled through See also:Austria to See also:Hungary, but was unable to visit See also:Turkey as he had proposed. Then he made for See also:Italy, where he met See also:Chesterfield. At See also:Venice, and elsewhere in Italy, he remained nearly a year, and then journeyed by way of See also:Piedmont and the See also:Rhine to See also:England. Here he stayed for some eighteen months, and acquired an admiration for English See also:character and polity which never afterwards deserted him. He returned, not to Paris, but to La Bride, and to outward See also:appearance might have seemed to be settling down as a See also:squire. He altered his See also:park in the English See also:fashion, made sedulous inquiries into his own See also:genealogy, arranged an See also:entail, asserted, though not harshly, his seignorial rights, kept poachers in See also:awe and so forth. But these matters by no means engrossed his thoughts. In his great study at La Bride (a See also: The point of view is entirely different from that of Bossuet, and it seems entirely improbable that Montesquieu knew anything of Vico. In the Grandeur et decadence the characteristics of the Esprit des lois appear with the necessary subordination to a narrower subject. Two things are especially noticeable in it: a peculiarity of style, and a peculiarity of thought. The style has a superficial defect. The page is broken up into See also:short paragraphs of but a few lines each, which look very ugly, which irritate the reader by breaking the sense, and which prepare him to expect an undue and ostentatious sententiousness. On the other See also:hand, the merits of the expression are very great. It is grave and destitute of See also:ornament, but extraordinarily luminous and full of what would be called See also:epigram, if the word epigram had not a certain See also:connotation of flippancy about it. It is a very short book; for, printed in large type with tolerably abundant notes, it fills but two See also:hundred pages in the See also:standard edition of Montesquieu's works. But no work of the century, except See also:Turgot's second See also:Sorbonne Discourse, contains, in See also:pro-portion to its See also:size, more weighty and See also:original thought on See also:historical subjects, while Montesquieu has over Turgot the immense See also:advantage of style. Although, however, this ballon d'essai, in the style of his great work, may be said to have been successful, and though much of that work was, as we have seen, in all See also:probability already composed, Montesquieu was in no See also:hurry to publish it. He went on " cultivating the See also:garden " diligently both as a student and as an improving landowner. He wrote the See also:sketch of Lysimaque for See also:Stanislaus Leczinski; he published new and final editions of the Temple de Gnide, of the Lettres persanes, of Sylla et Eucrate (which indeed had never been published, properly speaking). After allowing the Grandeur et decadence to be reprinted without alterations some half-dozen times, he revised and corrected it. He also took great pains with the See also:education of his son Charles and his daughter Denise, of whom he was extremely fond. He frequently visited Paris, where his favourite resorts were the salons of Mme de See also:Tencin and Mme d'See also:Aiguillon. Yet it seems that he did not begin the final task of See also:composition till 1743. Two years of uninterrupted work at La Bride finished the greater part of it, and two more the See also:rest. It was finally published at See also:Geneva in the autumn of 1748, in two volumes See also:quarto. The publication was, however, preeeded by one of those See also:odd incidents which in literature illustrate See also:Clive's well-known saying about courts-See also:martial in See also:war. Montesquieu summoned a See also:committee of See also:friends, according to a very See also:common practice, to hear and give an See also:opinion on his work. It was an imposing and certainly not an unfriendly one, consisting of Charles Jean See also:Francois See also:Henault, Helvetius, the financier See also:Etienne de See also:Silhouette, the dramatist See also:Joseph Saurin, See also:Crebillon the younger, and, lastly, See also:Fontenelle—in fact, all sorts and conditions of literary men. They unanimously advised the author not to publish a book which has been described as " one of the most important books ever written," and which may be almost certainly ranked as the greatest book of the French 18th century. Montesquieu, of course, did not take his friends' See also:advice. In such cases no See also:man ever does, and in this See also:case it was certainly fortunate. The Esprit des lois represents the reflections of a singularly clear, original, and comprehensive mind, corrected by See also:forty years' study of men and books, arranged in accordance with a long deliberated See also:plan, and couched in See also:language of remarkable freshness and See also:idiosyncrasy. In the original editions the full title runs L'Esprit des lois: ou du rapport que les lois doivent avoir avec la constitution de chaque gouvernement, les mceurs, le climat, la See also:religion, le See also:commerce, arc. It consists of See also:thirty-one books, which in some editions are grouped in six parts. Speaking summarily, the first part, containing eight books, deals with law in See also:general and with forms of See also:government; the second, containing five, with military arrangements, with See also:taxation, &c.; the third, containing six, with See also:manners and customs, and their dependence on See also:climatic conditions; the See also:fourth, containing four, with economic matters; and the fifth, containing three, with religion. The last five books, forming a kind of supplement, deal specially with See also:Roman, French, and feudal law. The most noteworthy peculiarity of the book to a cursory reader lies in the See also:section dealing with effects of See also:climate, and this indeed was almost the only characteristic which the vulgar took in, probably because it was easily susceptible of See also:parody and reductio ad absurdum. The singular spirit of moderation which distinguishes its views on politics and religion was indeed rather against it than in its favour in France, and Helvetius, who was as outspoken as he was good-natured, had definitely assigned this as the reason of his unfavourable See also:judgment. On the other hand, if not destructive it was sufficiently critical, and it thus raised enemies on more than one See also:side. It was long suspected, but is now positively known, that the book (not altogether with the See also:goodwill of the See also:pope) was put on the See also:Index, and the Sorbonne projected, though it did not carry out, a See also:regular censure. To all these objectors the author replied in a masterly defense; and there seems to be no See also:foundation for the See also:late and scandalous stories which represent him as having used Mme de See also:Pompadour's See also:influence to suppress criticism. The fact was that, after the first snarlings of envy and incompetence had died away, he had little occasion to complain. Even Voltaire, who was his decided enemy, was forced at length to speak in public, if not in private, complimentarily of the Esprit, and from all parts of Europe the See also:news of success arrived. Montesquieu enjoyed his See also:triumph rather at La Brede than at Paris. He was becoming an old man, and, unlike Fontenelle, he does not seem to have preserved in old See also:age the See also:passion for society which had marked his youth. He certainly spent much of his later years in the country, though he sometimes visited Paris, and on one visit procured the See also:release of his admirer See also:Laurent Angliviel de La Beaumelle from an imprisonment which La Beaumelle had suffered at the instance of Voltaire. He is said also to have been instrumental in obtaining a See also:pension for See also:Alexis See also:Piron. Nor did he by any means neglect literary composition. The curious little See also:romance 'of Arsace et Ismen-ie, a short and unfinished See also:treatise on Taste, many of his published Pensees, and much unpublished See also:matter date from the See also:period subsequent to the Esprit des lois. He did not, however, live many years after the appearance of his great work. At the end of 1754 he visited Paris, with the intention of getting rid of the See also:lease of his house there and finally retiring to La Brede. He was shortly after taken ill with an attack of See also:fever, which seems to have affected the lungs, and in less than .a fortnight he died, on the See also:roth of See also:February 1755, aged sixty-six. He was buried in the church of St Sulpice with little pomp, and the Revolution obliterated all trace of his remains. The literary and philosophical merits of Montesquieu and his position, actual and historical, in the literature of France and of Europe, are of unusual See also:interest. At the beginning of the next century the vicomte de See also:Bonald classed him with See also:Racine and Bossuet, as the object of a " religious veneration " among Frenchmen. But Bonald was not quite a suitable spokesman for France, and it may be doubted whether the author of the Esprit des leis has ever really occupied any such position in his own country. For a See also:generation after his See also:death he remained indeed the idol and the great authority of the moderate reforming party in France. Montesquieu is not often quotable, or quoted, at the See also:present day, and the exact criticism of our time challenges the accuracy of his facts. Although he was really the founder, or at least one of the founders, of the sciences of See also:comparative politics and of the philosophy of history, his descendants andfollowers in these sciences think they have outgrown him. In France his popularity has always been dubious and contested. It is a singular thing that for more than a century there was no properly edited edition of his works, and nothing even approaching a See also:complete See also:biography of him, the See also:place of the latter being occupied by the meagre and rhetorical Eloges of the last century. According to his See also:chief admirers, he is hardly read at all in France to-day, and they See also:attempt to explain the fact by confessing that Montesquieu, great as he is, is not altogether great according to French principles. It is not only that he is an Anglo-maniac, but that he is rather English than French in style and thought. He is almost entirely dispassionate in politics, but he lacks the unswerving deductive consistency which Frenchmen love in that science. His wit, it is said, is See also:quaint and a little provincial, his style irregular and in no definite genre. Some of these things may be allowed to exist and to be defects in Montesquieu, but they are balanced by merits which render them almost insignificant. It is on his three See also:principal works that his fame does and must rest. Each one of these is a masterpiece in its kind. It is doubtful whether the Lettres persanes yield at their best either in wit or in giving lively pictures of the time to the best of Voltaire's similar work, though they are more unequal. There is, moreover, the great difference between Montesquieu and Voltaire that the former is a rational reformer, and not a See also:mere persifleur or frondeur, to whom See also:fault-finding is more convenient than acquiescence for showing off his wit. Of course this last descript}on does not fully or always describe Voltaire, but it often does. It is seldom or never applicable to Montesquieu. Only one of Voltaire's own charges against the book and its author must be fully allowed. He is said to have replied to a friend who urged him to give up his See also:habit of sneering at Montesquieu, " Il est coupable de lese-poesie," and this is true. Not only are Montesquieu's remarks on See also:poetry childish (he himself occasionally wrote verses, and very See also:bad ones), but he is never happy in purely literary appreciation. The Considerations are noteworthy, not only for the complete See also:change of style (which from the light and mocking See also:tone of the Lettres becomes grave, weighty and sustained, with abundance of striking expression), but for the profundity and originality of the views, and for the completeness with which the author carries out his plan. These words—except, perhaps the last clause—apply with increasing force to the Esprit des lois. The book has been accused of desultoriness, but this arises, in part at least, from a misapprehension of the author's See also:design. At the same time, it is impossible to deny that the equivocal meaning of the word " law," which has misled so many reasoners, has sometimes misled Montesquieu himself. For the most part, however, he keeps the promise of his sub-title (given above) with fidelity, and applies it with exhaustive care. It is only in the last few books, which have been said to be a kind of appendix, that something of irrelevancy suggests itself. The real importance of the Esprit des lois, however, is not that of a formal treatise on law, or even on polity. It is that of an assemblage of the most fertile, original and inspiriting views on legal and political subjects, put in language of singular suggestiveness and vigour, illustrated by examples which are always See also:apt and luminous, permeated by the spirit of temperate and tolerant desire for human improvement and happiness, and almost unique in its entire freedom at once from doctrinairism, from visionary See also:enthusiasm, from egotism, and from an undue spirit of See also:system. As for the style, no one who does not See also:mistake the See also:definition of that much used and much misused word can deny it to Montesquieu. He has in the Esprit little ornament, but his composition is wholly admirable. Yet another great peculiarity of this book, as well as of the Considerations, has to be noticed. The See also:genius of the author for generalization is so great, his See also:instinct in political science so sure, that even the falsity of his premises frequently fails to vitiate his conclusions. He has known wrong, but he has thought right. The best edition of Montesquieu is that of Edouard Laboulaye (7 vols., Paris, 1875-1879), the best biography that of Louis Vian (Paris, 2nd ed., 1879). The bibliography of Montesquieu was dealt with by L. Dangeau in 1874. There is known to exist at La Brede a great See also:mass of MS. materials for the Esprit des lois, additional . Lettres persanes, essays, and fragments of all kinds, diaries, letters, notebooks and so forth. The present possessors, however, who represent Montesquieu, long refused permission to examine these to all editors and critics, and they were chiefly known .by a See also:paper contributed in 1834 to the Transactions of the Academy of See also:Agen. At last in 1891 Baron Charles de Montesquieu published Deux opuscules of his ancestors, and in 1899 Baron Gaston de Montesquieu added Pensees, &c. Nothing, however, of much interest has yet appeared. For a thorough student L'Esprit de Montesquieu by A. Charaux (1885) has value, for it is written, with some ability, from a point of view now very uncommon, that of a convinced Roman See also:Catholic, See also:anti-parliamentarian and anglophobe critic, who regards Montesquieu as an " evangelist' of social See also:atheism " and the like. The view is quite untenable but useful as a corrective. An See also:article by Churton See also:Collins on " Montesquieu in England " (Quarterly See also:Review, No. 394, See also:April 1903) may be also consulted. (G. SA.) MONTESQUIOU-FEZENSAC, See also:ANNE See also:PIERRE, See also:MARQUIS DE (1739-1798), French general and writer, was born in Paris on the 17th of See also:October 1739, of an ancient family of See also:Armagnac. He was brought up with the See also:children of the See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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