Essays Political Historical And Miscellaneous PDF Download

Excerpt from Essays, Vol. 2: Political, Historical, and Miscellaneous Like all other men whose thoughts have made a great and widespread impression on mankind, the originality and value of Montesquieu's conceptions cannot be rightly appre ciated by subsequent ages. That is the consequence of their very originality and importance. They have sunk so deep, and spread so far among mankind, that they have become common, and almost trite. Like the expressions of Shak Speare, Gray, or Milton, they have become household words on reading his works as on reading those of our own immortal poets, we are astonished to find how vast a proportion of our habitual thoughts and expressions have sprung from his genius. This, however, far from being a reproach to an author, is his highest commendation; it demonstrates at once the originality of his thoughts, and the impression they have made on mankind. If we would discover the advance a great man has made, we must recur to the authors in the same line who have preceded him, and then the change appears great indeed. The highest praise which can be bestowed on an author as an original thinker, is to say, that his ideas were unknown to the authors who preceded, trite with those who followed him. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.