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Parallels to Ideas in the Lettres Persanes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Alessandro S. Crisafulli
Alessandro S. Crisafulli*
Affiliation:
Saint Louis University
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Extract

The Lettres Persanes, on which Montesquieu worked in leisurely fashion for perhaps ten years, reflect to a large extent the voluminous reading he must have done during this time. Their great variety of subjects implies numerous possible sources of inspiration, not all as yet indicated by Montesquieu scholars. It is my purpose to consider as possible sources of some ideas in the Lettres Persanes three authors of Montesquieu's epoch—Malebranche, Leibniz, and Shaftesbury. By the expression “possible sources” I mean that there are between Montesquieu and these three writers some relationships of ideas which may imply influence, since Montesquieu esteemed these writers and knew, or could have known, their works before 1721, the date of the publication of the Lettres Persanes. Two of these authors, Malebranche and Shaftesbury, were in fact greatly admired by Montesquieu. Ranking them as highly as Plato and Montaigne, he even calls these four writers “the four great poets.”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , September 1937 , pp. 773 - 777
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1937

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References

1 Pensées et fragments, ii, 490.

2 Strowski, Montesquieu, p. 13.

3 Cf. Letters 128, 142, and Appendix, the letter beginning “Un homme d'esprit. . . ”, ed. Barckhausen; and Malebranche, Recherche de la vérité, book ii, part ii, ch. iv, vi, vii; book iv, ch. vii; book v, ch. xi.

4 “Platon et Montesquieu,” Revue Bleue, Jan. 2 and 9,1909.

5 Œuvres, i, 401 (1837 ed.).

6 Book iii, Conclusion, p. 228 (1678 ed.).

7 Lettres Persanes, ii, 191.

8 Œuvres Philosophiques de Leibnitz, ed. P. Janet (Paris, 1866), ii, 147–148.

9 Book i, ch. i.

10 Lettre sur l'enthousiasme . . . trad. par Samson, 1708;—trad. de l'anglais (La Haye, 1709), in-18. Essai sur l'usage de la raillerie et de l'enjouement . . . traduit de l'anglais par Juste Van Effen (La Haye, 1710), in-12;—trad. par P. Coste, 1710.

11 Characteristics, i, 74, ed. John M. Robertson (New York, 1900).

12 Op. cit., i, 18.

13 Ibid., i, 25.

14 Ibid., i, 29.

15 Op. cit., i, 28.