242 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.
tail of his very extraordinary life, London he formed conneaionswith
of the military anions he had a men accuftnmed to meditation, who
part in, and the charafters of the qualified themfelvcs for great ac-
generals and miniders he had tions by ftudy. From them he in -
known. Montcfquicu often re- formed himfelf of the nature of the
called to mind thofe converfations, Englilh government, and acquired
and related many paflages of them a perfett knowledge of it. Ger-
to his friends. many, he faid, was fit only to travel
From Venice he went to Rome, in, Italy to refide in, England to
In thisancient capital of theworld, think in, and France to live in. which is ftill fo in fome refpefts, he On his return to France, he re-
particularly attended to that by tired for two years to his feat at
which it is at prefent diftinguifli- la Brede, and put the laft hand to
ed, the works of Raphael, Titian, his work, of the caufes of the rife
and Michael Angelo. He had and fall of Rome, Sur la caufe de
never particularly lludied the fine U grandeur & de la decadence dcs
arts: but the expreffion that fliines Romahis : which appeared in 1734.
forth in the mailer-pieces of that It might juftly have been intituled,
kind, never fails to llrike every q'he Roman Hijlory for the ufe of
man of genius. Accultomed to at- Statefmen and Philofophers. tend to nature, he knows her when How much reputation foever he
he fees her imitated ; as a good might have gained by this and his
likenefs flrikes all to whom the former works, he had, as yet, only
original is familiar. cleared the way for a much greater
After travelling through Italy, undertaking, that which ought to
M. de Montefquieu went to Swit- immortalife his name, and render
zerland,andcarefully examined the his memory refpedable to future
vaft countries jhat are watered by ages. He had long before this
the Rhine. There remained no- thing more in Germany for him to fee; for Frederick was not yet ccme to the crown. After (laying fome time in the United Provices, which
time formed the defign of it: he had meditated on the execution of it for twenty years, or rather his whole life was one continued medi- tation. He firlt made himfelf, as It
are an admirable monument of were, a ftranger to his own country,
what Induflry can do animated by that he might know it better. He
the \ove oi Liberty, he c;ime over next vifited Europe, and witn the
to England, where he refided two deepell attention fludied the charac-
years. He had nothing to regret, lerilticks of the different nations by
but that he did not come fooner ; which it is inhabited. That famous
Locke and Newtonwere both dead, ifland, which glories fo much in its
But he had often the honour to laws, and makes fuch bad ufe of
wait on. their protedrefs. Queen them, was tohim, in this long tour,
Caroline, who cultivated philofo- what the ifle of Crete was formerly
phy on the throne, and had a joft to Lycurgus, a fchool where heim-
relifli for M. de Montefquieu's proved in knowledge, without ap-
converfation. He was equally well proving of the whole. In fine, he had
received by the nation; who in this examined and judged nations and
inllance did not want to have the eminentmen thatnolongerexift,but
example fct thera by the court. At in the annals of the •.vorid. Thus he
gradu-
