hich ranks second in importance to it, the _Grandeur et
Decadence des Romains_, 1734. This was Montesquieu's first serious work,
and it placed him as high among serious writers as the _Lettres
Persanes_ had among lighter authors. The _Esprit des Lois_ itself did
not appear till 1748. Montesquieu, whose life was in no way eventful,
lived for some years longer, dying in Paris on the 10th of February,
1755. Besides the works mentioned he had written several dialogues and
other trifles, a considerable number of _Pensees_, and some articles for
the earlier volumes of the Encyclopaedia.

[Sidenote: Lettres Persanes.]

[Sidenote: Gradeur et Decadence des Romains]

Montesquieu probably deserves the title of the greatest man of letters
of the French eighteenth century, the superior versatility and more
superficial brilliancy of Voltaire being compensated in him by far
greater originality and depth of thought. His three principal works
deserve to be considered in turn. The _Lettres Persanes_, in which the
opinions of a foreigner on French affairs are given, is not entirely
original in conception; the idea of the vehicle being possibly suggested
by the _Amusements Divers_ of Dufresny the comic author. The working
out, however, is entirely Montesquieu's, and was followed closely enough
by the various writers, who, with Voltaire and Goldsmith at their head,
have adopted a similar medium for satire and criticism since. It is not
too much to say that the entire spirit of the _philosophe_ movement in
its more moderate form is contained and anticipated in the _Lettres
Persanes_. All the weaknesses of France in political, ecclesiastical,
and social arrangements are here touched on with a light but sure hand,
and the example is thus set of attacking 'les grands sujets.' From a
literary point of view the form of this work is at least as remarkable
as the matter. Voltaire himself is nowhere more witty, while Montesquieu
has over his rival the indefinable but unquestionable advantage of
writing more like a gentleman. There is no single book in which the
admirable capacity of the French language for jesting treatment of
serious subjects is better shown than in the _Lettres Persanes_.
Montesquieu's next important work was of a very different character. The
_Considerations sur les Causes de la Grandeur et de la Decadence des
Romains_ is an entirely serious work. It does not as yet exhibit the
magnificent breadth of view and the inexhaustible