Lettres persanes. Adapted and edited by Eugène Pellissier

Among his lesser works are Dialogue de Sylla et d'Eucrate, Lysimaque (unfinished), Le temple de Gnide, Essai sur le goîU, Arsace et Isménie, Pensées diverses. Lettres, etc.

Had Montesquieu written nothing but the Lettres persanes, he would still deserve a very high place in the history of French literature ; for in this work he not only gave the first model of political satire, but was the inaugurator of that lively and brilliant style which distinguishes the eighteenth from the seventeenth century. It is much to be regretted that, to comply with the depraved taste of the time of the Regency, he should hâve condescended to be more thau once licentious; but the very structure of the book easily allows of the suppression of those passages which are offensive by their extrême liberty, and such as it is hère presented, its reading will, it is hoped, be found as interesting as it is unobjectionable.

" Portraits satiriques," says Villemain, " exagérations ménagées avec un air de vraisemblance, décisions tranchantes amenées par des saillies, contrastes inattendus, expressions fines et détournées, langage familier, rapide

xiv Lettres Persanes

et moqueur, toutes les formes de l'esprit s'y montrent et s'y renouvellent sans cesse. . . . Montesquieu se livre à la gaieté de son siècle; il la partage pour mieux la peindre, et le style de son ouvrage est à la fois le trait le plus brillant et le plus vrai du tableau qu'il veut tracer." But the Lettres persanes do not merely contain a piquant picture of contemporary society, in which the satirist mercilessly exposes ail the follies, weaknesses, and préjudices of his time, and offers us a gallery of portraits not inferior to La Bruyère's ; they also abound in suggestive ideas on social and political questions, and reveal in mariy places the philosopher who was to write De V esprit des lois.

After displaying the brilliancy of his wit in the Lettres persa?îes, Montesquieu showed ail the gravity of his genius in the Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence. If he may be reproached with having admitted without demur certain facts which hâve been since proved to be unauthentic, it must not be forgotten that historical criticism is quite a modem science and scarcely existed at the time in which he wrote. The few errors into which he fell do not, moreover, affect the soundness of the conclusions at which he arrived, and his work may be looked upon as the first successful example of what is now called the philosophy of history.

In De Vesprit des lois, of which the Considérations

Introduction xv

were, so to speak, the prélude, Montesquieu applies the same philosophical method to the study of law, and endeavours to find out the relation which exists between it and the government, manners, climate, and religion of each country. "Cet ouvrage," he says, "a pour objet les lois, les coutumes et les divers usages de tous les peuples de la terre. On peut dire que le sujet en est immense, qu'il embrasse toutes les institutions qui sont reçues parmi les hommes, puisque l'auteur distingue ces institutions ; qu'il examine celles qui conviennent le plus à la société et à chaque société ; qu'il en cherche l'origine ; qu'il en découvre les causes physiques et morales ; qu'il examine celles qui ont un degré de bonté par elles-mêmes et celles qui n'en ont aucun ; qu'il discute celles qui peuvent avoir de bons effets à un certain égard et de mauvais dans un autre."

De l'esprit des lois is divided into thirty-one books. In the first eight the author examines the laws in their connexion with the nature of the government, which is either monarchical, despotic, or republican. The principle of the first of thèse governments is honour; that of the second, fear ; and that of the third, virtue ; and each of them perishes by the exaggeration of its principle. In the next five books, Montesquieu studies the best way of ensuring political liberty, and, finding it in the séparation of the three powers, législative, judicial, and executive, expresses his unbounded admira-

xvi Lettres Persanes

tion for the English constitution, which seems to him to ensure this distinction better than any other. In the second half of the work, after insisting upon the influence of climate and attributing to it the origin of slavery, which he attacks with the most biting irony, he examines how the nature of the soil, the manners, commerce, and religion of every country afîect its laws and institutions, preaches toleration and eloquently protests against the inquisition, and finally concludes with a history of the right of succession among the Romans and the Franks, and a study of feudal législation.

The boldness of some of his views caused him to be violently assailed. Accused of irreligion in the most scurrilous language, he vindicated himself with the greatest calmness and courtesy in the Défense de F Esprit des lois, which he published in 1750. But though the abuses he pointed out and the reforms he asked for T excited against him the hatred of the most fanatical partisans of the old régime, he was far from being a revolutionist. If he cherished liberty, he feared nothing so much as sudden changes, and constantly recommended modération and patience, hoping for everything from the slow influence of time and the graduai enlightenment of the human mind.

" Il y a," says Gerusez, " peu de noms aussi grands que celui de Montesquieu dans l'histoire des lettres, il

Introduction xvii

n'y en a pas qui soit entouré de plus de considération. Comme écrivain, quelques restrictions ont été mises à l'éloge. On l'accuse d'avoir prodigué l'esprit. Sa pensée, dit-on, s'aiguise en traits, sa lumière jaillit en étincelles, sa profondeur prend une forme énigmatique; soit, mais on avouera que ces traits ont de la portée, ces étincelles de l'éclat, ces énigmes des mots de grand sens qui satisfont les esprits distingués. Tout ce qu'on peut conclure de là, c'est que cet homme de génie avait, par surcroît, un merveilleux esprit. Comme homme, ce fut véritablement un sage. Si ses ouvrages doivent être un sujet d'études assidues et d'admiration, sa vie aussi est un modèle à suivre. Il fit le bien sans ostentation et goûta la paix d'une bonne conscience. Il a été donné à peu d'hommes de pouvoir dire comme lui : ' Chaque jour, je m'éveille en revoyant la lumière avec une joie ineffable.'" E. P.