rn of mind, his recreation was found not in repose, but
in change of occupation. Books of voyages and travels were collected,
and read with avidity; he devoured rather than read the classical
remains of Greece and Rome. "That antiquity," said he, "enchants me,
and I am always ready to say with Pliny--You are going to Athens; show
respect to the gods."

It was under this feeling of devout gratitude to the master minds of
the ancient world, that he made his first essay in literature, which
came out in a small work in the form of letters, the object of which
was to show, that the idolatry of most Pagans did of itself not merit
eternal damnation. Probably there are few good Christians, from
Fenelon and Tillotson downwards, who will be of an opposite opinion.
Even in that juvenile production are to be found traces of the sound
judgment, correct taste, and general thought which characterised his
later works. But he was soon thrown into the proper labours of his
profession. On the 24th February 1714, he was admitted into the
parliament of Bourdeaux as a councillor; and his paternal uncle, who
held the president's chair, having died two years after, young
Montesquieu was, on the 13th July 1716, appointed to that important
office, though only twenty-seven years of age. Probably his being
thrown thus early in life into the discharge of onerous and important
duties, had an important effect in producing that firmness and
maturity of judgment by which his mind was subsequently distinguished.
Some years afterwards, he gave a convincing proof of his fitness for
the situation, in the vigour with which he remonstrated against the
imposition of a fresh tax on wine, which had the effect of procuring
its removal at the time, though the necessities of government led to
its being reimposed some years after. But his ardent mind was not
confined to professional pursuits. He concurred in the formation of an
academy of sciences at Bourdeaux, and read some papers in it on
natural history; and his attention being in this way turned to
physical science, he wrote and published in the journals, a project
for a "Physical History of the Earth, Ancient and Modern."

But in no human being was more completely exemplified the famous
line--

"The proper study of mankind is man."

Montesquieu's genius was essentially moral and political; it was on
man himself, not the material world with which he was surrounded, that
his thoughts were fixed. This