MONTESQUIEU AND THE ACADEMY

In 1725 Montesquieu vvas elected a member of the Academy, but an almost obsolète rule requiring résidence in Paris was appealcd to, and the élection was annullcd. It is doubtful whether a hankering after Parisian society, or an ambition to belong to the Academy, or a désire to dévote himself to literary pursuits of grcater importance, or simple weariness of not wholly congenial work, determined him to give up his Bordeaux office ; it is certain that he continued to hold it but a short time after this. It is tolerably clear that he had aiready begun his great work, and the character of some papers which, about this time, he read at the Bordeaux Academy is graver and less purely curious than his earlier contributions. In 1726 he sold the life-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 Brède. There was now no further formai obstacle to his réception in the Academy, but a new one arose. Ill-wishers had brought the Lettres persanes specially under the minister Fleury's 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 ail seem to agrée that Montesquieu made concessions which were more effectuai than dignified. He was elected and received in January 1728,