some by the neglect of the
public, on others by its indignation." The only instance in which he
deviated from this wise resolution was in replying to the attacks of
an anonymous critic, who, in a Journal entitled the _Nouvelles
Ecclesiastiques_, had represented him as an atheist. In his _Lettres
Persanes_, though he had never assailed the great principles of his
religion, he had, in his sallies against the Jesuits, gone far to
warrant the belief that he was inclined to do so; and had already done
enough in the estimation of the tyrannical and bigoted ecclesiastics
who at that period ruled the Church of France, to warrant his being
included in the class of infidel writers. But his mind, chastened by
years, enlightened by travelling and reflection, had come to cast off
these prejudices of his age and country, the necessary result of the
Romish tyranny by which it had been oppressed, but unworthy of an
intellect of such grasp and candour. In the Protestant countries of
Europe, particularly Holland and England, he had seen the working of
Christianity detached from the rigid despotism by which the Church of
Rome fetters belief, and the well-conceived appliances by which it
stimulates imagination, and opens a refuge for frailty. Impressed with
the new ideas thus awakened in his mind, he had in his _Esprit des
Loix_ pronounced a studious and sincere eulogium on Christianity;
recommending it, not only as the most perfect of all systems of
religious belief, but as the only secure basis of social order and
improvement. It was material to correct the impression, partly just,
partly erroneous, which his earlier and more indiscreet writings had
produced; and with this view he wrote and published his _Defence de l'
Esprit des Loix_. This little piece is a model of just and candid
reasoning, accompanied with a refined and delicate vein of ridicule,
which disarmed opposition without giving ground for resentment. He
congratulated himself on the fine satire with which he had overthrown
his enemies.--"What pleases me in my Defence, is not so much," said
he, "to have floored the Ecclesiastics, as to have let them fall so
gently." Posterity will find a more valuable charm in this little
production; it is, that the author in it has unconsciously painted
himself. His contemporaries have recorded, that in reading it they
could believe they heard the writer speak; and this proves that his
talents in conversation had been equal to those he displa