neffes, and Fears, and to prepare them for an eternal Felicity. Let who can, offer to such a Creature as Man any Thing better. This is the true Spirit, the Model and Pattern of Laws. AFTER all this, let me not be asked what is the Spirit of Laws. I think I know it, yet dare not declare it but by a Simile. It is exactly the fame as the Spirit of the Perfian Letters, with which Europe has been fo much delighted, and of which Editions upon Editions have been published. Did you expect any Thing fo pofitive, and which has a nearer Refemblance to the Subject? Then afk the illuftrious Prefident de Montefquiou, what is this fame Spirit of the Perfian Letters, where it refides, and how it came to fhine with fuch Effulgency in this firft Production? He him self, by the fame Spirit, will give you a Satisfactory Answer, without any Offence from me against certain Prepoffeffions incident to the Learned. FOR my Part, I know the Spirit of a Work is the fame with which its Author is animated. I even think I have infinuated, and perhaps perhaps demonftrated for fome Body, that the Law is originally and effentially the Idea and Design of Nature and Humanity, which are the Work of an Author. It is therefore in this fovereign Author that the Spirit of Laws is infallibly to be found: It is there I trace it in the Veftiges which he himself has marked in his Productions; and which he has reimprinted, from time to time, to fupport the Weakness of the Matter against the Injuries of Time, and the Malice of wicked Men. ESSAYS |