siderations_, discussing a fragment of the subject in dramatic
form. Montesquieu's desire to arrive at general truths sometimes led
him to large conclusions resting on too slender a basis of fact; but
the errors in applying his method detract only a little from the
service which he rendered to thought in a treatment of history at
least tending in the direction of philosophic truth.

The whole of his mind--almost the whole of his existence--is embodied
in the _Esprit des Lois_ (1748). It lacks the unity of a ruling idea;
it is deficient in construction, in continuity, in cohesion; much
that it contains has grown obsolete or is obsolescent; yet in the
literature of eighteenth-century thought it takes, perhaps, the
highest place; and it must always be precious as the self-revealment
of a great intellect--swift yet patient, ardent yet temperate,
liberal yet the reverse of revolutionary--an intellect that before
all else loved the light. It lacks unity, because its author's mind
was many-sided, and he would not suppress a portion of himself to
secure a factitious unity. Montesquieu was a student of science, who
believed in the potency of the laws of nature, and he saw that human
society is the product of, or at least is largely modified by, natural
law; he was also a believer in the power of human reason and human
will, an admirer of Roman virtue, a citizen, a patriot, and a reformer.
He would write the natural history of human laws, exhibit the
invariable principles from which they proceed, and reduce the study
of governments to a science; but at the same time he would exhibit
how society acts upon itself; he would warn and he would exhort; he
would help, if possible, to create intelligent and patriotic citizens.
To these intentions we may add another--that of a criticism, touched
with satire, of the contemporary political and social arrangements
of France.

And yet again, Montesquieu was a legist, with some of the curiosity
of an antiquary, not without a pride in his rank, interested in its
origins, and desirous to trace the history of feudal laws and
privileges. The _Esprit des Lois_ is not a doctrinaire exposition
of a theory, but the record of a varied life of thought, in which
there are certain dominant tendencies, but no single absolute idea.
The forms of government, according to Montesquieu, are
three--republic (including both the oligarchical republic and the
democratic), monarchy, despotism. Each of these structu