Maupertuis, though ill, performed himself this
last duty to his friend, and would not permit so sacred an office to
fall to the share of any other. To these honorable suffrages were added
those praises given him, in presence of one of us, by that very monarch
to whom this celebrated Academy owes its lustre; a prince who feels the
losses which Philosophy sustains, and at the same time comforts her.

The 17th of February the French Academy, according to custom, performed
a solemn service for him, at which all the learned men of this body
assisted. They ought to have placed the 'Spirit of Laws' upon his
coffin, as heretofore they exposed, opposite to that of Raphael, his
Transfiguration. This simple and affecting decoration would have been a
fit funeral oration.

M. de Montesquieu had, in company, an unvarying sweetness and gayety of
temper. His conversation was spirited, agreeable, and instructive,
because he had known so many great men. It was, like his style, concise,
full of wit and sallies, without gall, and without satire. Nobody told a
story more brilliantly, more readily, more gracefully, or with less
affectation.

His frequent absence of mind only made him the more amusing. He always
roused himself to reanimate the conversation. The fire of his genius,
his prodigality of ideas, gave rise to flashes of speech; but he never
interrupted an interesting conversation; and he was attentive without
affectation and without constraint. His conversation not only resembled
his character and his genius, but had the method which he observed in
his study. Though capable of long-continued meditation, he never
exhausted his strength; he always left off application before he felt
the least symptom of fatigue.

He was sensible to glory, but wished only to deserve it, and never tried
to augment his own fame by underhand practices.

Worthy of all distinctions, he asked none, and he was not surprised that
he was forgot; but he has protected at court men of letters who were
persecuted, celebrated, and unfortunate, and has obtained favors
for them.

Though he lived with the great, their company was not necessary to his
happiness. He retired whenever he could to the country; there again with
joy to welcome his philosophy, his books, and his repose. After having
studied man in the commerce of the world, and in the history of nations,
he studied him also among those simple people whom nature alone has
instructed. From them he could