MONTESQUIEU.

CHARLES DE SECONDAT, Baron of La Brede and Montesquieu, was born at La Brede, near Bourdeaux, the 18th of January, 1689, of a noble family in Guyenne. His father had early quitted the service, in which he had frequently distinguished himself, and devoted all his attention to the education of his son, from whose happy disposition he formed the most flattering expectations. At an age when the mind is willing to embrace every science, but too frequently grasps at all, without attaching itself to any particular one, the study of jurisprudence appears to have exclusively occupied the attention of Montesquieu. It might then be foreseen that this would become the principal study of his life; and it was not difficult to prognosticate the future author of the Spirit of Laws. To genius seems to belong the peculiar property of directing all its vigour and energy to a single point; while those of ordinary minds are divided and weakened by the attempt to grasp at every attainment, without the power of excelling in any. Thus had so many great men distinguished themselves in one career, in that illustrious age, of which Montesquieu was destined to see the end. That happy period seemed to have exhausted all the triumphs of literature, and probably induced him to direct his thoughts to the study of law; a matter undoubtedly of sufficient novelty, if considered in a philosophical point of view. He had already made ample extracts from the numerous volumes which compose the civil code; but willing to adhere to the peculiar course of the magistracy, he was admitted a counsellor

in the parliament of Bourdeaux. In 1716, a paternal uncle, who was one of the presidents, à mortier,—(thus denominated from the resemblance of the caps they wore to the shape of a mortar) voluntarily resigned over to him his estate and his place. That he was not unworthy of this high distinction appeared some years after, when being deputed by his company to present a remonstrance to the king, on the creation of a new impost, he executed his commission with equal dignity and success, and displayed all the frankness of a citizen, without offending the

court.

When only twenty, he had already prepared materials for his great work, by copious extracts from the voluminous tracts which compose the system of civil law. His modesty, however, prevented him from exposing himself too soon to the public eye; and he had attained the age of thirty-two before he published the Persian Letters, his first literary attempt-bearing perhaps in mind the maxim of Horace

Si quid tamen olim

Scripseris in Metii discendat judicis aures,

Et Patris, et nostras-nonumque prematur in annum.

A rule, which may be applied to every species of authorship as well as poetry. In 1721, appeared his Persian Letters, an imitation of the Sianeese Letters of Duperny; but, says Voltaire, imitated in a manner which shewed how the originals ought to have been written. The success of this work exceeded all former examples. The very title was sufficient to procure the sale of the most wretched productions. The booksellers of the time sent perpetually, requesting the author to furnish them with Persian Letters. The French Academy, so often exposed to the satire of writers, but always the great object of their de

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sires and their ambition, hastened to invite Montesquieu to become one of its members. It generously overlooked a few occasional strokes in the Letters directed against itself. But his reception was for some time obstructed by the old Cardinal de Fleury, whose timid conscience had been alarmed by the representation of some pas sages, in which religion and government were not sufficiently respected. According to Voltaire, Montesquieu caused a new edition to be prepared, in which these obnoxious passages were omitted; and that he presented a copy to the cardinal, who perused it, and immediately consented to his admission. But this anecdote is very improbable; it is more reasonable to suppose, that some powerful friends succeeded in removing the cardinal's scruples. He soon after sold his situation of president à mortier, with a view of travelling into other countries.

His travels were planned and executed with his usual spirit of prudence and reflection. His intention in leaving his own country, was to study the laws, constitutions, and manners, of others,-to see and converse with the learned, the polite, and the ingenious artists of each. For this purpose he waited till reading had informed his * mind, and reflection had matured his judgment. He did not quit France till he had attained a middle age, and till his name was known and respected. After visiting Germany, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, and Holland, he came to England. But he arrived too late; for Locke and Newton, the only men worthy to be associated with him, were dead. He was however soon distinguished by the Queen of England, the celebrated Caroline, who cultivated the sciences, and had long been in correspondence with the most learned men of her time.

On his return from his travels, he finished his Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness and Decline of the Romans.-These Causes were already to be found in history-it was reserved for philosophy to develope them, Montesquieu has exposed them with that sagacity and energetic precision peculiar to himself. The works of the ancients did not furnish him with all the materials necessary to form a complete picture of the rapid aggrandizement and progressive decline which the history of the Roman empire presented; but, like a skilful architect, who, from a heap of ruins, may trace the plan of an ancient edifice, he supplied by his genius and his sagacity what was wanting in the confused and scanty documents before him. A small volume embraces a history, the greatest and most interesting that can be conceived. "While he discloses much," says d'Alembert, "he leaves still more to the reflection and judgment of his readers and he might have entitled his book "The Roman History, for the Use of Statesmen and Philosophers." At length, after a labour of many years, during which, as he often acknowledged, he felt his strength and his resolution often fail him, he presented to the world his Spirit of Laws, the glory of French literature. "Humanity," says Voltaire, "had lost all recollection of its rights; Montesquieu discovered and restored them." But the success of this elaborate and original performance could not be supposed ever to equal that of the Persian Letters. Its merit was known and felt only by a small literary circle; few were disposed to read-fewer still could comprehend it; and the ignorant and the idle revenged themselves by epigrams and satire. The lively and satirical remark of Madame de Deffant has been too frequently cited, c'est de l'esprit sur les loix. But neither these light attacks, nor the heavy criticisms of

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professed reviewers, could long delay the celebrity of a book, which assumed, among the French themselves, that rank in literature which other nations had from the first assigned it. The previous reading necessary for such a work must have been immense, yet its author was nearly deprived of sight, and was compelled to have recourse to the assistance of others. His favourite writers were Plutarch, and above all Tacitus, between whom and himself, there was a singular coincidence of stylethe same energy, precision, and sometimes obscurity of diction. Of Tacitus, Montesquieu was accustomed to say, He abridged every thing, because he saw every thing; and by thus describing the genius of Tacitus, he has exactly defined his own. To this undoubtedly we must attribute that want of method and connection, which is too apparent in the Spirit of Laws-that seeming carelessness, which left to the sagacity and intelligence of the reader the task of connecting remarks, too often broken and dissimilar, by compelling him to supply those intermediate ideas, which the rapid and extensive genius of the author saw and passed over.

When Montesquieu published his Temple of Gnidus, he probably intended to shew that the same hand, which inscribed the History of Nations, the Revolutions of Empires, and the Spirit of Laws and Manners, could also sketch the lighter scenes of Love and Pleasure. In fact, its only merit consists in its having been written by the author of the Spirit of Laws, and the Considerations on the Romans. A thousand empty and superficial minds could have better succeeded in this gallant but futile style of composition, than the robust genius of Montesquieu; he was too much constrained by the trifling nature of his subject. "It is," says La Harpe, "like an eagle