MONTESQUIEU'S " CONSIDERATIONS

Montesquieu had always, as indeed was the case with most Frenchmen of his century, been interested in ancient Rome and her history ; and he had composed not a few minor tractâtes on the subject, of which many titles and some examples remain, besides the already mentioned dialogue on Sylla. Ail thèse now took form in the Considératio7ts sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence^ which appeared in 1734 at Amsterdam, without the author's name. This, however, was perfectly well known ; indeed Montesquieu formally presented a copy to the French Academy. Anonymity of title-pages was a fashion of the day which meant nothing. The book was not extraordinarily popular in France at the time. The author's réputation as a jester stuck to him, and the salons affected to consider the Lettres persanes and

Passages for Translation into French 165

the new book respectively as the " grandeur " and the "décadence de M. de Montesquieu"; but more serious readers at once perceived its extraordinary merit, and it was eagerly read abroad. A copy of it exists, or existed, vvhich had the singular fortune to be annotated by Frederick the Great, and to be abstracted from the Potsdam Library by Napoléon. It fs said, moreover, by compétent authorities to hâve been the most enduringly popular and the most widely read of ail its author's vvorks in his own country, and it has certainly been the most frequently and carefuUy edited. Its merits are indeed undeniable. It is almost the first important essay in the philosophy of history, and no work of the century, except Turgot's second Sorbonne Discoitrse, contains, in proportion to its size, more weighty and original thought on historical subjects, while Montesquieu has over Turgot the immense advantage of style.