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LETTER XI.: To the Same. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 4 Familiar Letters; Miscellaneous Pieces; The Temple of Gnidus; A Defence of the Spirit of Laws [1777]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 4.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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LETTER XI.

To the Same.

I SHALL be in town the day after to-morrow. Accept not of any invitation to dine on Friday next, for I have engaged for your going to President Barbot’s. You must be there precisely at ten o’clock in the morning, as we are to begin a reading of the grand work* which you have heard of. We propose also to continue the reading after dinner. There will be none other present but you, my son, and the president. You will have an uncontrolled liberty to judge and to censure* .

I have sent your anacreontic production to my daughter. It is a charming piece, and must prove very flattering to her. I have read also your new year’s gift or epistle in the Petrarch-manner, to Madam de Pontac . It is enriched with most pleasing ideas. Why, my dear Abbé, you are a poet, and yet by your conduct it seems as if you do not know it.—Adieu.

[* ]The Spirit of Laws.

[* ]He was most amenable to critical remarks, for on the moment that any word, phrase, or passage was objected to, he did not hesitate to correct, alter, or elucidate, and in fine to remove every the least appearance of a difficulty.

[]A lady at Bourdeaux, as conspicuous for her wit, and connections with literary persons, as she had been formerly for her beauty.