of its success, even after the vast
labour he had employed in its composition, that he sent his manuscript
before publication to a friend on whose judgment he could
rely--Helvetius. That friend, notwithstanding all his penetration, was
so mistaken in his reckoning, that he conceived the most serious
disquietude as to the ruin of Montesquieu's reputation by the
publication of such a work. Such was his alarm that he did not venture
to write to the author on the subject, but gave the manuscript to
another critic, Saurin, the author of a work entitled _Spartacus_,
long since extinct, who passed the same judgment upon it. Both
concurred in thinking that the reputation of Montesquieu would be
entirely ruined by the publication of the new manuscript; the
brilliant author of the semi-voluptuous, semi-infidel _Lettres
Persanes_, would sink into a mere Legist, a dull commentator on
pandects and statutes, if he published the _Esprit des Loix_, "That,"
said Helvetius, "is what afflicts me for him, and for humanity, which
he was so well qualified to have served." It was agreed between them
that Helvetius should write to Montesquieu to give him an account of
their joint opinion, that he should not give the work to the world in
its present state. Saurin, with some reason, was afraid that
Montesquieu would be hurt at their communication; but Helvetius wrote
to him--"Be not uneasy; he is not hurt at our advice; he loves
frankness in his friends. He is willing to bear with discussions, but
answers only by sallies, and rarely changes his opinions. I have not
given him ours from any idea that he would either change his conduct
or modify his preconceived ideas, but from a sense of the duty of
sincerity cost what it will, with friends. When the light of truth
shall have dispelled the illusions of self-love, he will at least not
be able to reproach us with having been less indulgent than the
public."

Montesquieu, however, was not discouraged. He sent his manuscript to
the press with hardly any alteration, and took for his motto, _Prolem
sine matre creatam_;[1] in allusion to the originality of his
conception, and the total want of any previous model on which it had
been formed. The work appeared in the month of July 1748; and its
success, so far as the sale went, was prodigious. Before two years had
elapsed, it had gone through twenty-two editions, and been translated
into most of the European languages. This early success, rare in works