Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/258

 244 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

him on account of his work, and the multiplicity of company that crowded to him at Paris. His end was worthy of his life. OpprefieJ by grievous pain, and at a diltance from a family he loved, he breath- ed his lart with the tranquillity of a good man, confcious of having de- voted his talents to the fervice of virtue and mankind. He died on the loth of February, 1755, uni- verfally and fincerely regretted.

£el ) ' did honour to human na- ' ture, his writings julHcc. A
 * His virtues (fays Lord Cheiier-


 * friend to mankind, he afierted


 * their undoubted and unalienable


 * rights and freedom, even in his

' ters of religion and government
 * country, vvhofe prejudice in mat-


 * he had long lamented, and en-

« cefs) to remove. He well knew, « and julHy admired, the happy
 * deavoured (not without fome fuc


 * conftitutionofthis country, where


 * fixed and known laws reflrain


 * monarchy from tyranny, and li-

« works will illullrate his name, '-and furvive him as long as right ' reafon, moralobligation, and the
 * beny from licentioufnefs. His


 * true fpirit of laws lliall be under-

With regard to his private life.
 * flood, refpedled, and maintained.'

In company he was always pleafant and gay : his converfation, by the many men and nations he had con- verfed with, was fprightly, agree- able, and inllrudive. It was ab- rupt, like his llyle; full of piquant fallies, without bitternefs or fatire. Nobody told a llory with more life, readinefs, and grace, and lefs formality ; he knew that the con- clufion of a pleafant flory is the chief point, and he hallened to it, and produced the defired efFedl without hiving promifed it. The pleafure found in his company

was not the efFcfl of his temper and genius, but of a kind of regimen, alfo, which he obferved in his ftu- dies : though capable of deep and long-continued meditation, he ne- ver cxhaufted his ftrength ; but al- ways quitted labour before he felt any fenfation of fatigue.

Nothing does more honour to his memory, than his ceconomy ; which was thought too great in an age of avarice and diftipation, when its motives were not perceiv- ed, nor if perceived, could have been felt. Beneficeot, and confe- quently juft, M. de Montefquiea would take from his family nothing of what he gave to relieve the diftrefTed, nor of the large expences occafioned by his long travels, the diforder in his eyes, and the print- ing of his works. He left to his children the inheritance of his fa- ther, withoutdiniinuiion, and with- out increafe.

He married, in 1715, Jane de Lartigue, daughter of Pierre de Lartigue, lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of Maulevrier ; by whom he had two daughters, and a fon, who by his charadler, his manners, and his writings, hath fiiewn him- felf worthy of fuch a father.

We omitted to mention in its place fome of the author's lefs con- fiderable works, which ferved him for relaxation. The moll remark- able of thefe is the Temple de GniJe, which appeared foon after the Leitres Perfannes. In this piece he paints the delicacy and naivety of palloral love, as it appears in a mind uncorrupted by the commerce of the world. He concludes the preface, in which he reprefents the workasatranllation from theGreek, with thefe words: * If grave peo- ' frivolous work, I can fatisfy ' them :
 * pie fhould delire of me a lefs