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LETTER LVII.: A Billet 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 LVII.

A Billet to the Same.

YOU were present yesterday at the dispute I had with Mr. de Mairan concerning the Chinese* . I am afraid I have been too warm upon that matter, and I should have been very much hurt to have given that excellent man any cause of uneasiness. If you dine to day at M. Trudain’s, you will probably meet him there; and should you, I pray sound him a little in order to know if he has taken any thing I said in an unfriendly part. According as you shall report, I will take such measures towards him as cannot fail of convincing him, that I had no unkind intention, and that I entertain the highest regard for his merit and friendship.

[* ]These two learned gentlemen did not agree in some points relating to the Chinese, in the favour of whom Mr. de Mairan declared, on the authority of Father Paranin, a Jesuit’s letter, of whose veracity M. de Montesquieu doubted not a little. As soon as the voyage of Admiral Anson appeared, the latter triumphantly exclaimed, “I had always said that the Chinese were not such very honest men, as the missionary Jesuits would fain make us to believe them through the channel of their edifying letters.