Untitled - 24grammata.com

318 ON THE RISE, PROGRESS, ETC.This division of Ms work would do no discredit to Montesquieu himself, ^hose precursor, and that no unworthyone, he was.Notwithstanding these and other undeniable merits, andin spite of the approbation which it drew from the best of1his contemporaries, Bodin's work did not attain to thatpractical influence which it deserved.The seed which he scattered fellupon a soil as yet toolittle prepared to receive it, and the observation before madethat political speculation can never support itself except inconnexion with philosophy,ishere remarkably established.The nation was not yet ripe.The state of France, during the seventeenth century, wasnot such as to lead us to expect the requisite maturitv, Assoon as the Hugonots were suppressed, or at least disarmedRichelieu laid the foundation of the absolute power of thecrown, and Lewis XIV. confirmed it without any further resistance from the people. Even if a spirit of political inquiry had by chance arisenamongindividuals, where wasit to find means of increase ?Surely not among a peoplewho not only submitted without a murmur to the letterswhich were imposed upon them, but who went so far intheir greediness for fame rather than freedom, as to beproud of the chains theyWe wore.must, therefore, turn to another land, to one inwhich, by the concurrence of more fortunate circumstances,the theory of civil government became fully developed, andacquired a great practical influence an influence moreoverexerted rather to preserve than to destroyImean, toEngland.It might be mentioned here almost without a rival, wereit not that Geneva, the smallest state in Europe, makes itspre-eminence in this respect somewhat doubtfulThe progress which the theory of governmentEngland ismade inmainly attributable to the circumstances of thattetv e^ansion ivof fl former of them, he is indebted toPMux for the sound philosophy by which they are distingmsh-*C B ? e l ^ d^WEL E pictoe of tllegoranment under which^eatest^PP mess ^ybe obtained, but he has expresslyc2^lt10^ ra necessary to its formation, and how unfiti tn, w f mous .it *ouW be for a society in which these were wanting TR 1Boll inyf 1* Th