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• Familiar Letters. By President De Montesquieu.
• Letter I.: To Father Cerati * of the Congregation of the Orators of Saint Philip At Rome.
• Letter II.: To the Same.
• Letter III.: To Monsieur L’abbé Venuti * , At Clerac.
• Letter IV.: To the Abbé Nicolini * , At Florence.
• Letter V.: To Mr. Cerati, At Pisa.
• Letter VI.: To Abbé Venuti At Clerac.
• Letter VII.: To Abbé De Guasco, At Turin.
• Letter VIII.: To the Count of Guasco, Colonel of Foot.
• Letter IX.: To the Abbé De Guasco.
• Letter X.: To the Same.
• Letter XI.: To the Same.
• Letter XII.: To the Countess De Pontac.
• Letter XIII.: To Mr. Cerati.
• Letter XIV.: To Abbé De Guasco At Clerac.
• Letter XV.: To the Same.
• Letter XVI.: To the Same.
• Letter XVII.: To the Same.
• Letter XVIII.: To the Same.
• Letter XIX.: To the Same Abbé De Guasco.
• Letter XX.: To the Same.
• Letter XXI.: To Mr. Cerati.
• Letter XXII.: To Abbé De Guasco, At Aix.
• Letter XXIII.
• Letter XXIV.: To the Same.
• Letter XXV.: To the Same.
• Letter XXVI.: To the Same.
• Letter XXVII.: To Mr. Cerati.
• Letter XXVIII.: To Prince Charles Edward.
• Letter XXIX.: To the Grand Prior Solar, Ambassador From Malta, At Rome.
• Letter XXX.: To the Abbé and Count De Guasco, At Paris.
• Letter XXXI.: To Mr. Cerati.
• Letter XXXII.: To Abbé Venuti.
• Letter XXXIII.: To the Abbé Count De Guasco.
• Letter XXXIV.: To the Abbé Venuti, At Bourdeaux.
• Letter XXXV.: To Mr. Cerati.
• Letter XXXVI.: To Abbé Venuti.
• Letter XXXVII.: To Abbé Venuti.
• Letter XXXVIII: To the Abbé Count De Guasco.
• Letter XXXIX.: To Abbé De Guasco.
• Letter Xl.: to the Same.
• Letter Xli.: to the Same.
• Letter Xlii.: to the Same, At Bourdeaux.
• Letter Xliii.: to the Same.
• Letter Xliv.: to the Same Abbé De Guasco.
• Letter Xlv.: to the Same At Vienna.
• Letter Xlvi.: to the Same Abbé De Guasco At Vienna.
• Letter Xlvii.: to the Same, At Verona.
• Letter Xlviii.: to the Same.
• Letter Xlix.: to the Same, At Naples.
• Letter L.: to the Same.
• Letter Li.: to Mr. Cerati.
• Letter Lii.: to the Abbé Marquis Nicolini.
• Letter Liii.: to Abbé Count De Guasco.
• Letter Liv.: to the Same.
• Letter Lv.: to the Auditor Bertolini, At Florence.
• Letter Lvi.: to Abbé Count De Guasco.
• Letter Lvii.: a Billet to the Same.
• Letter Lviii.: to the Grand Prior Solar, At Turin.
• Letter Lix.: the Fragment of a Letter From M. De Montesquieu, to the King of Poland, Duke of Lorraine, to Solicit His Majesty For a Place In the Academy of Nantz.
• Letter Lx.: Fragment of the King of Poland’s Answer, to the Foregoing Letter.
• Letter Lxi.: to M. De Solignac, Secretary to the Literary Society At Nantz.
• Letter Lxii.: From M. De Montesquieu. to the Author of a Short View of the Philosophical Works of Lord Bolingbroke.
• Letter Lxiii.: to the Dutchess of Aiguillon.
• Letter Lxiv.: From the Dutchess of Aiguillon, to Abbé De Guasco.
• Letter Lxv.: an Article Taken From a Letter of Baron Secondat De Montesquieu, to the Abbé Count De Guasco.
• Letter Lxvi.: Article of a Letter to the Same.
• Miscellaneous Pieces of M. De Secondat, Baron De Montesquieu.
• An Oration Pronounced the 24th of January, 1728. By President Montesquieu: When He Was Received Into the French Academy, In the Room of the Late M. De Sacy.
• An Essay Upon Taste, In Subjects of Nature, and of Art.
• Of the Pleasures of the Soul.
• Of the Mental Faculties * .
• Of Curiosity.
• Of the Pleasures of Order.
• Of the Pleasures of Variety.
• Of the Pleasures of Symmetry.
• Of Contrasts.
• Of the Pleasures of Surprize.
• Of Different Causes That Produce Sensation.
• Of Sensibility.
• Of Delicacy.
• Of the Je Ne Scais Quoi.
• The Progression of Surprize.
• Of Beauties Which Result From an Embarrassment of the Soul.
• The Temple of Gnidus.
• The Preface.
• Canto I.
• Canto II.
• Canto III.
• Canto IV.
• Canto V.
• Canto VI.
• Canto VII.
• Cupid Distressed.
• Lysimachus.
• The Analysis of the Spirit of Laws. By M. D’alembert.
• A Defence of the Spirit of Laws. to Which Are Added, Some Explanations.
• Part I.
• Part II.
• The General Idea.
• Of the Counsels of Religion.
• Of Polygamy.
• On Climate.
• Of Toleration.
• Of Celibacy.
• A Particular Error Committed By the Critic.
• Of Marriage.
• Of Usury.
• “of Maritime Usury.
• Part III.: Some Explanations of the Spirit of Laws.

LETTER XXXIX.

To Abbé de Guasco.

MY dear Abbé and Count, I have received at La Brede, where I now am, and wish you to be, your letter dated from Turin. The Marquis de St. Germain, who interests himself warmly in every thing that concerns you, had already informed me of the distinguished manner in which you were received at your court, and the justice that has been done to you. How comfortable must it be for a whole people to see their sovereign making adequate amends for the injuries which a wicked minister had caused him to inflict on a deserving subject. I conceive too with joy, that through the aid of time, merit will always pierce, and make itself known to intelligent princes, who give themselves the trouble of seeing every thing with their own eyes.

The good offices which the Marquis de St. Germain has rendered you by his letters, enhances the esteem which I had already for his various deserts. I compliment you sincerely on your being invested with the title of Count, and it would add much to my satisfaction on this occasion, were I to hear also of your being invested with an Abbotship, which would be no more than a proper reparation for the injuries which you have received. However, my dear Abbé, I hope you will not yet yield to any temptation of quitting us. You must be convinced that we do justice to your merit in France, and that you have many friends there. It would then be ingratitude in you to leave us for a short gale of court-favour. You will permit me, I hope, to quiet myself on this article by the old maxim, “That no man is a prophet in his own country.”

I have had Lord Hyde* with me here. He is now gone from Paris to Verret, to visit our amiable Duchess; from thence he means to shape his course to Richlieu, to see the marshal; afterwards to Bourdeaux, then to la Brede, and is to close his journey at Aiguillon: whither the Duke has dispatched orders that all the honours of his castle should be paid to him; so that he meets every where with all the zealous efforts of obliging courtesy, that are due to his high birth, and personal merit. My Lord Hyde professes a great regard for, and would be very glad to meet you, at la Brede.

You have aroused and tickled my vanity in the tenderest point by your information, that his royal highness has been so kind as to remember me. Present that excellent Prince with my respects approaching to adoration.—Now that Europe is so intermixed, and that there is so general a communication among all the parts, it may with truth be said, he who causes the happiness of one contributes to that of the rest, and so the spreading circle of happiness reaches from realm to realm.

While I am indulging my thoughts in visionary scenes, I am cheared with the pleasing prospects, that I may possibly revisit Turin, and there pay my court to your most amiable prince.

Assure Marquis de Breille, and the grand Prior, that while I breathe I shall be always theirs, and most devotedly. On my first seeing them at Vienna, I formed a resolution of being honoured with their friendship, which I soon obtained. I learn from Madam de St. Maure, that you are now at Piedmont in a new Herculaneum* ; where, after having scraped up the earth for about eight days, you found nothing but a brazen grasshopper. It is beyond a doubt that the gentlemen, called Antiquarians, are very great quacks. I have received no letters, nor any account whatsoever from Abbé Venuti, since his departure from Bourdeaux. He had some symptoms of friendship for me before he was made a priest and a provost. Let me know if you intend returning to Paris. For my part, I shall pass the winter, and part of the spring, where I am. The province is ruined, and in the case of such a public calamity, every body ought to stay at home. I am informed from Paris, that the luxury there is enormous. We have lost what we had of that folly here, which was indeed no great matter.

Were you to see la Brede in its present flourishing condition, I believe you would not be displeased with it. Your advice has been followed, and the alterations in consequence have called forth every latent charm. In short, it is a beautiful and sprightly butterfly, that has triumphantly extricated itself from the sluggish state of inert nymph-existence. Adieu, my friend, I salute and embrace you a thousand times.

[* ]Or Lord Cornbury, the last male descendant from the famous Chancellor Hyde, very much beloved in France, where he had resided for several years, and died of a consumption, greatly regretted by all those who had the happiness of knowing his excellent character, and the cultivated talents of his mind.

[* ]The ancient city of Industria, whose rains were discovered near the banks of the Po, in Piedmont. But the discovery has not been productive of many rich articles of antiquity. The most valuable that have been found are an elegant brazen Tripos, some medals, and some inscriptions.