The Spirit of the Laws (I)
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- Thomas Nugent
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~190,000 words · 919 passages
Cite this work
- APAMontesquieu. (n.d.). The Spirit of Laws, Volume 1 [The Spirit of the Laws (I)] (Thomas Nugent, Trans.). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/montesquieu/the-spirit-of-laws-volume-1
- MLAMontesquieu. The Spirit of Laws, Volume 1 [The Spirit of the Laws (I)]. Translated by Thomas Nugent. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/montesquieu/the-spirit-of-laws-volume-1.
- ChicagoMontesquieu. The Spirit of Laws, Volume 1 [The Spirit of the Laws (I)]. Translated by Thomas Nugent. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/montesquieu/the-spirit-of-laws-volume-1.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
A study of why each people has the laws it has, and of how to divide power so that no part of it holds enough to abuse.
Context and history
Montesquieu worked on it for close to twenty years and published it anonymously in Geneva in 1748, beyond the reach of French censorship. The separation of legislative, executive and judicial power set out here passed directly into the United States Constitution. Rome placed it on the Index in 1751.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
I have first of all considered mankind, and the result of my thoughts has been, that amidst such an infinite diversity of laws and manners, they were not solely conducted by the caprice of fancy. I have laid down the first principles, and have found that the particular cases follow naturally from them; that the histories of all nations are only consequences of them; and that every particular law is connected with another law, or depends on some other of a more general extent. When I have been obliged to look back into antiquity I have endeavored to assume the spirit of the ancients, lest I should consider those things as alike which are really different, and lest I should miss the difference of those which appear to be alike. I have not drawn my principles from my prejudices, but from the nature of things. xxxii MONTESQUIEU Here a great many truths will not appear till we have seen the chain which connects them with others. The more we enter into particulars, the more we shall perceive the certainty of the principles on which they are founded. I have not even given all these particulars, for who could mention them all without a most insupportable fatigue? The reader will not here meet with any of those bold flights which seem to characterize the works of the present age. When things are examined with never so small a degree of extent, the sallies of imagination must vanish; these generally arise from the mind's collecting all its powers to view only one side of the subject, while it leaves the other unobserved. I write not to censure anything established in any country whatsoever.…