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178 ANNUAL REGISTER [[2 Columns]] called him a collector of shells. What would he say of our runners about the fields, of our collectors of pebbles? Play-things should be only for children; and our pretended philosophers made them a serious occupation. These reflections are not made with a view of depreciating the study of natural philosophy and natural history, the pleasure and natural history, the pleasure and use of which are acknowledged. All talents deserve esteem; but in different degrees: literary fanaticism absolutely excludes all knowledge different from its own. But the fair name of philosopher is debased by lavishing it on the frivolous maker of experiments; upon the blood-besmeared anatomist, the busily prying botanist, the footy chymist. A mason is, without doubt, a necessary man in building a palace; but he ought not to usurp the name of architect; that name, and the regard due to it, belongs only to the genius that draws the plan, and directs the hands which work under him. One may see by this short comparison of the ancient philosophy with the modern, whether this last deserves the contempt it has fallen into; and how miserably defective is the mode of our education. ————————————————————————————————————— Essay on Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws; by Voltaire. THE author of the Spirit of Laws has founded his whole system upon this maxim, that virtue is the principle of a republican government, and honour that of a monarchy. Can there then be virtue without honour? And how is it that a republic can form pretensions to be established upon virtue? In order to answer these questions, let us turn our eyes to a passage on this subject in a small pamphlet: books of small bulk are liable to be lost in a short time; but truth ought never to perish; it ought therefore to be consigned to posterity in books of larger size. This writer says, "Republics certainly have never been formed by a superior prevalence of virtue in the public; but rather because it was the self-interest of each individual to oppose the domination of any one person over the rest; the spirit of property and of ambition in all became a check to the spirit of ambition and rapine, which appeared in a superior degree in any one; the pride of each member of the community watched over the pride of his neighbour; and no one was willing to be the slave of another man's caprices: these have ever been the motives which established republics at first, and preserved them afterwards. It is ridiculous then to imagine, that a free citizen of the Grizons has need of more virtue than a subject of Spain. And that honour is the fundamental principle of monarchies, more than of other forms of government, is a maxim nothing less chimerical than the former. Montesquieu himself sufficiently proves this, without intending it, in his 7th chapter of the 3d book, where he says, The nature of honour is, to demand preferences and distinctions; it must then, by its very nature, be found placed in a monarchic government. For the YEAR 1772. 179 [[2 Columns]] ment. True, but certainly not more in that than in other governments; for in the Roman republic also the citizens as eagerly demanded of the people the pretorship, the consulship, ovations and triumphs; what are these but preferences and distinctions, and such also as are much preferable to all the titles which in monarchies are often purchased at a fixed price?" These remarks prove, in my opinion, that the book of Spirit of Laws, although sparkling with ingenuity, and highly recommendable for its love of law and justice, and its hatred for superstition and rapine, is nevertheless entirely founded upon wrong principles. I may with truth add even farther, that it is principally in the courts of monarchies, that there has always been the greatest deficiency in honour The author of Pastor Fido has said justly, L'ingannare, il mentir la frode, il furto, Et la rapina di pieta vestita, Crescer col' danno e precipizio altrui, E far a fe de l'altrui biasmo onore Son' le virtu di quella gente infida. Deciet, falshood, fraud and theft, Rapine, cloathed in the garb of Piety, To rise upon the losses and ruin of others, And to do honour to oneself by exposing the faults of other men; These are the virtues of that faithless race. These lines contain a summary of all the common-place topics of censure against courtiers for these three thousand years past. And in truth it is chiefly in courts, that men of the least honour are able to arrive at high dignities and distinctions; for in republics, a citizen who has dishonoured himself by his actions, is never exalted by the people to public offices. The celebrated saying of the Duke of Orleans, the regent, is of itself sufficient to expose the weak foundation of the Spirit of Laws: C'est un parfait courtisan, il n'a ni humeur ni honneur; "He is a perfect courtier, he is all compliance, and no honour." ————————————————————————————————————— On Flattery; by the same. I Have never met with any monument of flattery in the most remote ages of antiquity; there is no flattery in Homer, or in Hesiod: their poems are never addressed to a Greek elevated to some high dignity; or to Madam his wife, as each book of Thomson's Seasons is dedicated to some rich man, or as so many other dedicatory epistles in verses now forgotten are addressed in England to men or ladies of fashion, with little encomiums, and the coat of arms of their patron or patroness at the head of the work. Neither is there any flattery in Demosthenes. This method of begging alms harmoniously began, if I be not mistaken, with Pindar; no one can hold out their hand more emphatically. Among the Romans, in like manner, grand flattery had its first date under Augustus. Julius Caeser had scarce time enough to be flattered. There is no example of higher date; we have no dedicatory [["N 2" is listed at the bottom of the second column]]
