hought, be controlled by constitutional laws. He entered into an
elaborate defence of individual property against Plato and More, rather
perhaps because the scheme of his work required the treatment of that
theme than because it was practically urgent in his day, when the
excesses of the Anabaptists had produced a strong feeling against
communistic doctrines. He was under the general influence of the
mercantilist views, and approved of energetic governmental interference
in industrial matters, of high taxes on foreign manufactures and low
duties on raw materials and articles of food, and attached great
importance to a dense population. But he was not a blind follower of the
system; he wished for unlimited freedom of trade in many cases; and he
was in advance of his more eminent contemporary Montaigne in perceiving
that the gain of one nation is not necessarily the loss of another. To
the public finances, which he called "the sinews of the state," he
devoted much attention, and insisted on the duties of the government in
respect to the right adjustment of taxation. In general he deserves the
praise of steadily keeping in view the higher aims and interests of
society in connexion with the regulation and development of its material
life.

Among his other works are _Oratio de instituenda in republica juventate_
(1559); _Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem_ (1566);
_Universale Naturae Theatrum_ (1596, French trans. by Fougerolles,
1597), and the _Colloquium Heptaplomeres de abditis rerum sublimium
arcanis_, written in 1588, published first by Guhrauer (1841), and in a
complete form by L. Noack (1857). The last is a philosophy of naturalism
in the form of a conversation between seven learned men--a Jew, a
Mahommedan, a Lutheran, a Zwinglian, a Roman Catholic, an Epicurean and
a Theist. The conclusion to which they are represented as coming is that
they will live together in charity and toleration, and cease from
further disputation as to religion. It is curious that Leibnitz, who
originally regarded the _Colloquium_ as the work of a professed enemy of
Christianity, subsequently described it as a most valuable production
(cf. M. Carriere, _Weltanschauung_, p. 317).

See H. Baudrillart, _J. Bodin et son temps_ (Paris, 1853); Ad. Franck,
_Reformateurs et publicistes de l'Europe_ (Paris, 1864); N.
Planchenault, _Etudes sur Jean Bodin_ (Angers, 1858); E. de
Barthelemy, _Etude sur J. Bodin_ (Paris, 1876); for the p