Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/27

Rh with enemies, and though expressed in the strongest and clearest manner, will be misinterpreted by the ignorant; and attacked, censured and vilified by those, who, blinded by zeal or prejudice, are resolved to see every thing through a false medium. The author has however, done ample justice to his own work, and has sufficiently cleared his reputation from all the aspersions that have been thrown upon it; we shall therefore conclude this preface with the third part of his defence, which, as it consists of some excellent reflections on the manner in which the Spirit of Laws has been criticised, and as it may be of use to direct the judgment of future critics, we shall give intire, and without abbreviation.

"We have seen in the two first parts, that all that results from so many bitter criticisms is this, that the author of the Spirit of Laws has not performed his work according to the plan and the views of his critics; and that it his critics had wrote upon the same subject, they would have inserted in it a great number of things with which they were acquainted. It appears also that they are divines, and the Rh