Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/8

iv has declared that from M. de Montesquieu he has learnt the art of government. But has the illustrious author received no such distinguished honor, the numberous editions of this work in French, and their sudden spreading through all Europe, are a sufficient testimony of the high esteem with which it has been received by the public.

But notwithstanding the deserved applause which has been so liberally bestowed on the author, there have been some who have not only endeavoured to blast his laurels, but have treated him with all the scurrility which bigotry and superstition are apt, on every occasion, to throw out against truth, reason and good sense. These M. de Montesquieu has himself answered, in a separate treatise intitled, A defense of the Spirit of Laws, from whence we have thought proper to extract, for the sake of such as have not seen that treatise, the principal of those objections, and the substance of what has been given in reply: Only first observing, that this defence is divided into three parts, in the first of which he answers the general reproaches that have been thrown out against him; in the second he