for his religious opinions,
but with injustice. He was prudent in the public expression of them, as
the time necessitated; but he makes the freest statement of them in his
correspondence with Voltaire. His literary and philosopic works were
edited by Bassange (Paris, 1891). Condorcet, in his 'Eulogy,' gives the
best account of his life and writings.

MONTESQUIEU

From the Eulogy published in the 'Encyclopedie'

The interest which good citizens are pleased to take in the
'Encyclopedie,' and the great number of men of letters who consecrate
their labors to it, authorize us to regard this work as the most proper
monument to preserve the grateful sentiments of our country, and that
respect which is due to the memory of those celebrated men who have done
it honor. Persuaded, however, that M. de Montesquieu had a title to
expect other panegyrics, and that the public grief deserved to be
described by more eloquent pens, we should have paid his great memory
the homage of silence, had not gratitude compelled us to speak. A
benefactor to mankind by his writings, he was not less a benefactor to
this work, and at least we may place a few lines at the base of his
statue, as it were.

Charles de Secondat, baron of La Brede and of Montesquieu, late
life-President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, member of the French
Academy of Sciences, of the Royal Academy and Belles-Lettres of Prussia,
and of the Royal Society of London, was born at the castle of La Brede,
near Bordeaux, the 18th of January, 1689, of a noble family of Guyenne.
His great-great-grandfather, John de Secondat, steward of the household
to Henry the Second, King of Navarre, and afterward to Jane, daughter of
that king, who married Antony of Bourbon, purchased the estate of
Montesquieu for the sum of ten thousand livres, which this princess gave
him by an authentic deed, as a reward for his probity and services.

Henry the Third, King of Navarre, afterward Henry the Fourth, King of
France, erected the lands of Montesquieu into a barony, in favor of
Jacob de Secondat, son of John, first a gentleman in ordinary of the
bedchamber to this prince, and afterward colonel of the regiment of
Chatillon. John Gaston de Secondat, his second son, having married a
daughter of the first president of the Parliament of Bordeaux, purchased
the office of perpetual president in this society. He had several
children, one of whom entered the service, distinguished himself, and
quitted it