CHAP. XII. RELATION BETWEEN THE WEIGHT OF TAXES
AND LIBERTY.
CHAP. XIII. IN WHAT GOVERNMENT TAXES ARE CAPABLE
OF INCREASE.
CHAP. XIV. THAT THE NATURE OF THE TAXES IS RELATIVE
TO THE GOVERNMENT.
CHAP. XV. ABUSE OF LIBERTY.
CHAP. XVI. OF THE CONQUESTS OF THE MAHOMETANS.
CHAP. XVII. OF THE AUGMENTATION OF TROOPS.
CHAP. XVIII. OF AN EXEMPTION FROM TAXES.
CHAP. XIX. WHICH IS MOST SUITABLE TO THE PRINCE
AND TO THE PEOPLE, THE FARMING THE REVENUES, OR
MANAGING THEM BY COMMISSION?
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CHAP. XX. OF THE FARMERS OF THE REVENUES.
ENDNOTES
{ BOOK XIV. OF LAWS AS RELATIVE TO THE NATURE OF THE CLIMATE.
CHAP. I. GENERAL IDEA.
CHAP. II. OF THE DIFFERENCE OF MEN IN DIFFERENT
CLIMATES.
CHAP. III. CONTRADICTION IN THE TEMPERS OF SOME
SOUTHERN NATIONS.
CHAP. IV. CAUSE OF THE IMMUTABILITY OF RELIGION,
MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND LAWS, IN THE EASTERN
COUNTRIES.
CHAP. V. THAT THOSE ARE BAD LEGISLATORS WHO
FAVOUR THE VICES OF THE CLIMATE, AND GOOD
LEGISLATORS WHO OPPOSE THOSE VICES.
CHAP. VI. OF AGRICULTURE IN WARM CLIMATES.
CHAP. VII. OF MONKERY.
CHAP. VIII. AN EXCELLENT CUSTOM OF CHINA.
CHAP. IX. MEANS OF ENCOURAGING INDUSTRY.
CHAP. X. OF THE LAWS RELATIVE TO THE SOBRIETY OF
THE PEOPLE.
CHAP. XI. OF THE LAWS RELATIVE TO THE DISTEMPERS
OF THE CLIMATE.
CHAP. XII. OF THE LAWS AGAINST SUICIDES.
CHAP. XIII. EFFECTS ARISING FROM THE CLIMATE OF
ENGLAND.
CHAP. XIV. OTHER EFFECTS OF THE CLIMATE.
CHAP. XV. OF THE DIFFERENT CONFIDENCE WHICH THE
LAWS HAVE IN THE PEOPLE, ACCORDING TO THE
DIFFERENCE OF CLIMATES.
ENDNOTES
{ BOOK XV. IN WHAT MANNER THE LAWS OF CIVIL SLAVERY ARE
RELATIVE TO THE NATURE OF THE CLIMATE.
CHAP. I. OF CIVIL SLAVERY.
CHAP. II. ORIGIN OF THE RIGHT OF SLAVERY AMONG THE
ROMAN CIVILIANS.
CHAP. III. ANOTHER ORIGIN OF THE RIGHT OF SLAVERY.
CHAP. IV. ANOTHER ORIGIN OF THE RIGHT OF SLAVERY.
CHAP. V. OF THE SLAVERY OF THE NEGROES.
CHAP. VI. THE TRUE ORIGIN OF THE RIGHT OF SLAVERY.
CHAP. VII. ANOTHER ORIGIN OF THE RIGHT OF SLAVERY.
CHAP. VIII. INUTILITY OF SLAVERY AMONG US.
CHAP. IX. SEVERAL KINDS OF SLAVERY.
CHAP. X. REGULATIONS NECESSARY IN RESPECT TO
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SLAVERY.
CHAP. XI. ABUSES OF SLAVERY.
CHAP. XII. DANGER FROM THE MULTITUDE OF SLAVES.
CHAP. XIII. OF ARMED SLAVES.
CHAP. XIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
CHAP. XV. PRECAUTIONS TO BE USED IN MODERATE
GOVERNMENTS.
CHAP. XVI. REGULATIONS BETWEEN MASTERS AND
SLAVES.
CHAP. XVII. OF INFRANCHISEMENTS.
CHAP. XVIII. OF FREED-MEN AND EUNUCHS.
ENDNOTES
{ BOOK XVI. HOW THE LAWS OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY HAVE A RELATION
TO THE NATURE OF THE CLIMATE.
CHAP. I. OF DOMESTIC SERVITUDE.
CHAP. II. THAT, IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE SOUTH,
THERE IS A NATURAL INEQUALITY BETWEEN THE TWO
SEXES.
CHAP. III. THAT A PLURALITY OF WIVES GREATLY
DEPENDS ON THE MEANS OF SUPPORTING THEM.
CHAP. IV. THAT THE LAW OF POLYGAMY IS AN AFFAIR
THAT DEPENDS ON CALCULATION.
CHAP. V. THE REASON OF A LAW OF MALABAR.
CHAP. VI. OF POLYGAMY CONSIDERED IN ITSELF.
CHAP. VII. OF AN EQUALITY OF TREATMENT IN CASE OF
MANY WIVES.
CHAP. VIII. OF THE SEPARATION OF WOMEN FROM MEN.
CHAP. IX. OF THE CONNEXION BETWEEN DOMESTIC AND
POLITICAL GOVERNMENT.
CHAP. X. THE PRINCIPLE ON WHICH THE MORALS OF THE
EAST ARE FOUNDED.
CHAP. XI. OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY INDEPENDENTLY OF
POLYGAMY.
CHAP. XII. OF NATURAL MODESTY.
CHAP. XIII. OF JEALOUSY.
CHAP. XIV. OF THE EASTERN MANNER OF DOMESTIC
GOVERNMENT.
CHAP. XV. OF DIVORCE AND REPUDIATION.
CHAP. XVI. OF REPUDIATION AND DIVORCE AMONGST
THE ROMANS.
ENDNOTES
{ BOOK XVII. HOW THE LAWS OF POLITICAL SERVITUDE HAVE A
RELATION TO THE NATURE OF THE CLIMATE.
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CHAP. I. OF POLITICAL SERVITUDE.
CHAP. II. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATIONS IN POINT
OF COURAGE.
CHAP. III. OF THE CLIMATE OF ASIA.
CHAP. IV. THE CONSEQUENCES RESULTING FROM THIS.
CHAP. V. THAT, WHEN THE PEOPLE IN THE NORTH OF
ASIA AND THOSE OF THE NORTH OF EUROPE MADE
CONQUESTS, THE EFFECTS OF THE CONQUEST WERE NOT
THE SAME.
CHAP. VI. A NEW PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE SLAVERY OF
ASIA AND OF THE LIBERTY OF EUROPE.
CHAP. VII. OF AFRICA AND AMERICA.
CHAP. VIII. OF THE CAPITAL OF THE EMPIRE.
ENDNOTES
{ BOOK XVIII. OF LAWS IN THE RELATION THEY BEAR TO THE NATURE
OF THE SOIL.
CHAP. I. HOW THE NATURE OF THE SOIL HAS AN
INFLUENCE ON THE LAWS.
CHAP. II. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
CHAP. III. WHAT COUNTRIES ARE BEST CULTIVATED.
CHAP. IV. NEW EFFECTS OF THE BARRENNESS AND
FERTILITY OF COUNTRIES.
CHAP. V. OF THE INHABITANTS OF ISLANDS.
CHAP. VI. OF COUNTRIES RAISED BY THE INDUSTRY OF
MAN.
CHAP. VII. OF HUMAN INDUSTRY.
CHAP. VIII. THE GENERAL RELATION OF LAWS.
CHAP. IX. OF THE SOIL OF AMERICA.
CHAP. X. OF POPULATION, IN THE RELATION IT BEARS TO
THE MANNER OF PROCURING SUBSISTENCE.
CHAP. XI. OF SAVAGE AND BARBAROUS NATIONS.
CHAP. XII. OF THE LAW OF NATIONS AMONG PEOPLE WHO
DO NOT CULTIVATE THE EARTH.
CHAP. XIII. OF THE CIVIL LAW OF THOSE NATIONS WHO
DO NOT CULTIVATE THE EARTH.
CHAP. XIV. OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF THE PEOPLE WHO
DO NOT CULTIVATE THE LAND.
CHAP. XV. OF PEOPLE WHO KNOW THE USE OF MONEY.
CHAP. XVI. OF CIVIL LAWS AMONG PEOPLE WHO KNOW
NOT THE USE OF MONEY.
CHAP. XVII. OF POLITICAL LAWS AMONGST NATIONS
WHO HAVE NOT THE USE OF MONEY.
CHAP. XVIII. OF THE POWER OF SUPERSTITION.
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CHAP. XIX. OF THE LIBERTY OF THE ARABS AND THE
SERVITUDE OF THE TARTARS.
CHAP. XX. OF THE LAW OF NATIONS AS PRACTISED BY
THE TARTARS.
CHAP. XXI. THE CIVIL LAW OF THE TARTARS.
CHAP. XXII. OF A CIVIL LAW OF THE GERMAN NATIONS.
CHAP. XXIII. OF THE REGAL ORNAMENTS AMONG THE
FRANKS.
CHAP. XXIV. OF THE MARRIAGES OF THE KINGS OF THE
FRANKS.
CHAP. XXV. CHILDERIC.
CHAP. XXVI. OF THE TIME WHEN THE KINGS OF THE
FRANKS BECAME OF AGE.
CHAP. XXVII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
CHAP. XXVIII. OF ADOPTION AMONG THE GERMANS.
CHAP. XXIX. OF THE SANGUINARY TEMPER OF THE KINGS
OF THE FRANKS.
CHAP. XXX. OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES OF THE
FRANKS.
CHAP. XXXI. OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CLERGY UNDER
THE FIRST RACE.
ENDNOTES
{ BOOK XIX. OF LAWS, IN RELATION TO THE PRINCIPLES WHICH FORM
THE GENERAL SPIRIT, THE MORALS, AND CUSTOMS, OF A NATION.
CHAP. I. OF THE SUBJECT OF THIS BOOK.
CHAP. II. THAT IT IS NECESSARY PEOPLE’S MINDS
SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR THE RECEPTION OF THE BEST
LAWS.
CHAP. III. OF TYRANNY.
CHAP. IV. OF THE GENERAL SPIRIT OF MANKIND.
CHAP. V. HOW FAR WE SHOULD BE ATTENTIVE LEST THE
GENERAL SPIRIT OF A NATION BE CHANGED.
CHAP. VI. THAT EVERY THING OUGHT NOT TO BE
CORRECTED.
CHAP. VII. OF THE ATHENIANS AND LACEDÆMONIANS.
CHAP. VIII. EFFECTS OF A SOCIABLE TEMPER.
CHAP. IX. OF THE VANITY AND PRIDE OF NATIONS.
CHAP. X. OF THE CHARACTER OF THE SPANIARDS AND
CHINESE.
CHAP. XI. A REFLECTION.
CHAP. XII. OF CUSTOM AND MANNERS IN A DESPOTIC
STATE.
CHAP. XIII. OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE CHINESE.
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CHAP. XIV. WHAT ARE THE NATURAL MEANS OF
CHANGING THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF A NATION.
CHAP. XV. THE INFLUENCE OF DOMESTIC GOVERNMENT
ON THE POLITICAL.
CHAP. XVI. HOW SOME LEGISLATORS HAVE CONFOUNDED
THE PRINCIPLES WHICH GOVERN MANKIND.
CHAP. XVII. OF THE PECULIAR QUALITY OF THE CHINESE
GOVERNMENT.
CHAP. XVIII. A CONSEQUENCE DRAWN FROM THE
PRECEDING CHAPTER.
CHAP. XIX. HOW THIS UNION OF RELIGION, LAWS,
MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS, AMONG THE CHINESE, WAS
EFFECTED.
CHAP. XX. EXPLICATION OF A PARADOX RELATING TO THE
CHINESE.
CHAP. XXI. HOW THE LAWS OUGHT TO HAVE A RELATION
TO MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
CHAP. XXII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
CHAP. XXIII. HOW THE LAWS ARE FOUNDED ON THE
MANNERS OF A PEOPLE.
CHAP. XXIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
CHAP. XXV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
CHAP. XXVI. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
CHAP. XXVII. HOW THE LAWS CONTRIBUTE TO FORM THE
MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND CHARACTER, OF A NATION.
ENDNOTES
AN EULOGIUM ON PRESIDENT MONTESQUIEU, BY MONSIEUR
D’ALEMBERT.
THE interest which good citizens are pleased to take in the Encyclopedia, and the great number of men of letters, who consecrate their labours to it, seem to permit us to regard this work as one of the most proper monuments, to preserve the grateful
sentiments of our country, and that respect which is due to the memory of those celebrated men who have done it honour. Persuaded, however, that M. de Montesquieu had a title to expect other panegyrists, and that the public grief deserved to be described by more eloquent pens, we would have concealed within our own breasts our just concern, and respect for his memory; but the acknowledgement of what we owe him we hold too dear to permit us to leave the care of it to others. While a benefactor to mankind by his writings, he also condescended to be so to this work, and our gratitude pretends to no more but only to trace out a few lines at the foot of his statue.
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Charles de Secondat, baron of La Brede and of Montesquieu, late president à mortier of the parliament of Bourdeaux, member of the French academy of sciences and belles lettres of Prussia, and of the Royal Society of London, was born at the castle of La Brede, near Bourdeaux, the 18th of January, 1689, of a noble family of Guyenne. His great great grandfather, John de Secondat, steward of the household to Henry the Second, king of Navarre, and afterwards to Jane, daughter of that king, who married Antony of Bourbon, purchased the estate of Montesquieu for the sum of 10,000 livres, which this princess gave him by an authentic deed, as a reward for his probity and services.
Henry the Third, king of Navarre, afterwards Henry the Fourth, king of France, erected the lands of Montesquieu into a barony, in favour of Jacob de Secondat, son of John, first one of the gentlemen in ordinary of the bedchamber to this prince, and ofterwards colonel of the regiment of Chatillon. John Gaston de Secondat, his second son, having married a daughter of the first president of the parliament of Bourdeaux, purchased the office of president à mortier in this society. He had several children; one of whom entered into the service, distinguished himself in it, and quitted it very early in life. This was the father of Charles de Secondat, author of the Spirit of Laws. These particulars may perhaps appear misplaced at the beginning of the eloge of a philosopher whose name stands so little in need of ancestors; but let us not envy their memory that eclat which this name reflects upon it.
The early marks of his genius, a presage sometimes so deceitful, was not so in Charles de Secondat: he discovered very soon what he one day would be, and his father
employed all his attention to cultivate this rising genius, the object of his hope and of his tenderness. At the age of twenty, young Montesquieu already prepared materials for the Spirit of Laws, by a well-digested extract from those immense volumes which compose the body of the civil law: thus heretofore Newton laid, in his early youth, the foundation of works which have rendered him immortal. The study of jurisprudence, however, though less dry to M. de Montesquieu than to the most part of those who apply to it, because he studied it as a philosopher, was not sufficient for the extent and activity of his genius. He enquired deeply, at the same time, into subjects still more
*
important and more delicate, and discussed them in silence, with that wisdom, with that decency, and with that equity, which he has since discovered in his works.
A brother of his father, president à mortier of the parliament of Bourdeaux, an able judge and virtuous citizen, the oracle of his own society and of his province, having lost an only son, and wanting to preserve, in his own corps, that elevated spirit which he had endeavoured to infuse into it, left his fortune and his office to M. de Montesquieu.
He had been one of the counsellors of the parliament of Bourdeaux since the 24th of February, 1714, and was received president à mortier the 13th of July, 1716.
Some years after, in 1722, during the king’s minority, his society employed him to http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
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present remonstrances upon occasion of a new impost. Placed between the throne and the people, he filled, like a respectful subject and courageous magistrate, the employment, so noble, and so little envied, of making the cries of the unfortunate reach the sovereign: the public misery, represented with as much address as force of
argument, obtained that justice which it demanded. This success, it is true, much more unfortunately for the stare than for him, was of as short continuance as if it had been unjust. Scarce had the voice of the people ceased to be heard, but the impost, which had been suppressed, was replaced by another: but the good citizen had done his duty.
He was received the 3d of April, 1716, into the academy of Bourdeaux, which was then only beginning. A taste for music, and for works of pure entertainment, had at first assembled together the members who composed it. M. de Montesquieu believed, with reason, that the rising ardour and talents of his friends might be employed with still greater advantage in physical subjects. He was persuaded that nature, so worthy of being beheld every where, found also, in all places, eyes worthy of viewing her; that, on the contrary, works of taste not admitting of mediocrity, and the metropolis being the center of men of abilities and opportunities of improvement in this way, it was too difficult to gather together, at a distance from it, a sufficient number of distinguished writers. He looked upon the societies for belles lettres, so strangely multiplied in our provinces, as a kind, or rather as a shadow, of literary luxury, which is of prejudice to real opulence, without even presenting us with the appearance of it. Luckily the duke de la Force, by a prize which he had just founded at Bourdeaux, seconded these rational and just designs. It was judged that an experiment properly made would be preferable to a weak discourse or a bad poem; and Bourdeaux got an academy of sciences.
M. de Montesquieu, not at all eager to shew himself to the public, seemed, according to the expression of a great genius, to wait for an age ripe for writing. It was not till 1721, that is to say, at 32 years of age, that he published the Persian Letters. The Siamois, and the serious and comic amusements, might have furnished him with the idea of it; but he excelled his model. The description of oriental manners, real or supposed, of the pride and phlegm of Asiatic love, is but the smallest object of these letters; it only serves, so to speak, as a pretence for a delicate satire upon our manners, and for treating of several important subjects, which the author went to the bottom of, while he only appeared to glance at them. In this kind of moving picture, Usbec chiefly exposes, with as much genteel easiness as energy, whatever amongst us most struck his
penetrating eyes: our way of treating the most silly things seriously, and of turning the most important into a joke; our conversations which are so blustering and so frivolous; our impatience even in the midst of pleasure itself; our prejudices and our actions perpetually in contradiction with our understandings; so much love of glory joined with so much respect for the idol of court-favour; our courtiers so mean and so vain; our exterior politeness to, and our real contempt of, strangers, or our affected regard for them; the fantasticness of our tastes, than which there is nothing lower but the eagerness of all Europe to adopt them; our barbarous disdain for the two most
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respectable occupations of a citizen, commerce and magistracy; our literary disputes, so keen and so useless; our rage for writing before we think, and for judging before we understand. To this picture, which is lively, but without malice, he opposes, in the apologue of the Troglodytes, the description of a virtuous people, become wise by misfortunes: a piece worthy of the portico. In another place, he represents philosophy, which had been a long time smothered, appearing all of a sudden, regaining, by a rapid progress, the time which he had lost; penetrating even amongst the Russians at the voice of a genius which invites her; while, among other people of Europe, superstition, like a thick atmosphere, prevents that light, which surrounds them on all hands, from reaching them. In fine, by the principles which he has established concerning the nature of ancient and modern government, he presents us with the bud of those bright ideas which have been since developed by the author in his great work.
These different subjects, deprived at present of the graces of novelty, which they had when the Persian Letters first appeared, will for ever preserve the merit of that original character which the author has had the art to give them; a merit by so much the more real, that in this case it proceeds alone from the genius of the writer, and not from that foreign veil with which he covered himself; for Usbec acquired, during his abode in France, not only so perfect a knowledge of our morals, but even so strong a tincture of our manners, that his style makes us often forget his country. This small defect in point of probability was perhaps not without design and address: when he was exposing our follies and vices, he wanted without doubt also to do justice to our advantages. He was fully conscious of the insipidity of a direct panegyric: he has more delicately praised us, by so often assuming our own air to satirize us more agreeably.
Notwithstanding the success of this work, M. de Montesquieu did not openly declare himself the author of it. Perhaps he thought that by this means he would more easily escape that literary satire, which spares anonymous writings the more willingly, because it is always the person, and not the work, which is the aim of its darts. Perhaps he was afraid of being attacked on account of the pretended contrast of the Persian Letters with the gravity of his office; a sort of reproach, said he, which critics never fail to make, because it requires no effort of genius. But his secret was discovered, and the public already pointed him out to the French academy. The event demonstrated how prudent M. de Montesquieu’s silence had been. Ufbec expresses himself sometimes freely enough, not concerning the fundamentals of Christianity, but about matters which too many people affect to confound with Christianity itself; about the spirit of persecution with which so many Christians have been animated; about the temporal usurpation of ecclesiastic power; about the excessive multiplication of monasteries, which deprive the state of subjects, without giving worshippers to God; about some opinions which have in vain been attempted to be established as principles; about our religious disputes, always violent and always fatal. If he appears any where to touch upon more delicate questions, and which more nearly interest the Christian religion, his reflections, weighed with justice, are in fact very favourable to revelation; because he http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
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only shews how little human reason, left to itself, knows concerning these subjects. In a word, among the genuine letters of M. de Montesquieu the foreign printer had inserted some by another hand; and they ought at least, before the author was condemned, to have distinguished which properly belonged to him. Without regard to these
considerations, on the one hand, hatred under the name of zeal, and, on the other, zeal without discernment or understanding, rose and united themselves against the Persian Letters. Informers, a species of men dangerous and base, which even in a wise
government are unfortunately sometimes listened to, alarmed, by an unfaithful extract, the piety of the ministry. M. de Montesquieu, by the advice of his friends, supported by the public voice, having offered himself for that place in the French academy vacant by the death of M. de Sacy, the minister wrote a letter to the academy, that his majesty would never agree to the election of the author of the Persian Letters; that he had not read the book; but that persons in whom he placed confidence had informed him of their poisonous and dangerous tendency. M. de Montesquieu perceived what a stroke such an accusation might be to his person, his family, and the tranquility of his life. He neither put so high a price upon literary honours, either keenly to seek them, or to affect to disdain them when they came in his way, nor, in a word, to regard the simple want of them as a misfortune: but a perpetual exclusion, and especially the motives of that exclusion, appeared to him to be an injury. He saw the minister; declared to him that, for particular reasons, he did not own the Persian Letters; but that he would be still farther from disowning a work for which he believed he had no reason to blush; and that he ought to be judged after a reading, and not upon an information. At last the minister did what he ought to have begun with; he read the book, loved the author, and learned to place his confidence better. The French academy was not deprived of one of its greatest ornaments, and France had the happiness to preserve a subject which superstition or calumny was ready to deprive her of; for M. de Montesquieu had
declared to the government, that, after that kind of affront which they were about to put upon him, he would go among foreigners, who with open arms offered to receive him, in quest of that safety, that repose, and perhaps those rewards, which he might have hoped for in his own country. The nation would have deplored this loss, and the disgrace of it would notwithstanding have fallen upon it.
The late marshal d’Estrées, at that time director of the French academy, conducted himself upon this occasion like a virtuous courtier and a person of a truly elevated mind: he was neither afraid of abusing his credit nor of endangering it; he supported his friend and justified Socrates. This act of courage, so dear to learning, so worthy of being imitated at present, and so honourable to the memory of marshal d’Estrées, ought not to have been forgot in his panegyric.
M. de Montesquieu was received the 24th of January, 1728. His oration is one of the best which have been pronounced upon a like occasion: its merit is by so much the greater, that those who were to be received, till then confined by those forms and by those éloges which were in use, and to which a kind of prescription subjected them, had http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Montesquieu0187/CompleteWorks/0171-01_Bk.html
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not as yet dared to step over this circle to treat of other subjects, or had not at least thought of comprehending them in it. Even in this state of constraint he had the
*
happiness to succeed. Among several strokes with which his oration shines, we may easily distinguish the deep-thinking writer by the single portrait of cardinal Richlieu, who taught France the secret of its strength, and Spain that of its weakness; who freed Germany from her chains and gave her new ones. We must admire monsieur de Montesquieu for having been able to overcome the difficulty of his subject, and we ought to pardon those who have not had the same success.
The new academician was by so much the more worthy of this title, that he had not long before renounced every other business to give himself entirely up to his genius and taste. However important the place which he occupied was, with whatever judgement and integrity he might have fulfilled its duties, he perceived that there were objects more worthy of employing his talents; that a citizen is accountable to his country and to mankind for all the good which he can do; and that he could be more useful to one and the other, by instructing them with his writings, than he could be by determining a few particular disputes in obscurity. All these reflec