De l'esprit des lois: ou, du rapport que les loix doivent avoir avec la constitution de chaque gouvernement, les moeurs le climat, la religion, le commerce, etc.
Contributions
- Charles Louis de Secondat, baron La Brède and Montesquieu
- author
- Barillot & fils (Jacques François Barillot)
- publisher
Related resources
- has translation
- The Spirit of Laws: Translated from the French of M. de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu. With corrections and additions communicated by the author translation has paratext
Summary (extracted citations)
From the Author's foreword to the 1757 edition: "In order to understand the first four books of this work, one must note that what I call virtue in a republic is love of the homeland [patrie], that is, love of equality. It is not a mortal virtue, or a Christian virtue it is political virtue, and this is the spring that makes republican government move, as honour is the spring that makes monarchy move. Therefore I have called love of the homeland and of equality, political virtue… In a word, honour is in the republic though political virtue is its spring; political virtue is in the monarchy though honour is its spring".
Notes
Publication supervised by the Genevan pastor Jacob Vernet. By 1758, editions were appearing, prefaced by d'Alembert's 'Eulogy to Montesquieu' and 'Analysis of the Spirit of the Laws' (Amsterdam: Arkstée and Merkus).