Montesquieu Charles Bücher

Montesquieu's characteristic is not the strangeness of his subject, but his understanding of it. He only wanted to comprehend. We have a few glimpses that show this effort and pride. He delved into countless documents and texts, into the infinite heritage of the past, historical books, and documents, solely to grasp their logic and reason. He aimed to catch and unravel the thread tangled by centuries. He was unraveling. At first, he saw himself as lost in this small universe, like a ship adrift in a boundless sea. He wanted the shores of the sea to exist, to reach and dock at these shores. He was docking. No one had ventured into this adventure before him. One must believe that this man, who loved ships enough to think about the drawing of their hulls, the height of their masts, and their speeds, was akin to all fearless sailors, as he engaged in overseas journeys that traced the Carthaginians along the African coasts and the Spaniards to India (America). Seeing himself within the vastness of his subject, it is not in vain that he remembers these things: the last sentence of his book is a celebration of the approaching shore. It is true that he moved toward the unknown. But for this sailor, the unknown was also new land.

" Dans cet important ouvrage, Monsieur de Montesquieu, sans s'appesantir, à l'exemple de ceux qui l'ont précédé, sur des discussions métaphysiques relatives à l'homme supposé dans un état d'abstraction ; sans se borner, comme d'autres, à considérer certains peuples dans quelques relations ou circonstances particulières, envisage les habitants de l'univers dans l'état réel où ils sont, et dans tous les rapports qu'ils peuvent avoir entre eux. La plupart des autres écrivains en ce genre sont presque toujours, ou de simples moralistes, ou de simples jurisconsultes, ou même quelquefois de simples théologiens. Pour lui, l'homme de tous les pays et de toutes les nations, il s'occupe moins de ce que le devoir exige de nous, que des moyens par lesquels on peut nous obliger de le remplir ; de la perfection métaphysique des lois, que de celle dont la nature humaine les rend susceptibles ; des lois qu'on a faites, que de celles qu'on a dû faire ; des lois d'un peuple particulier, que de celles de tous les peuples. " d'Alembert.