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Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau in England
Voltaire Montesquieu and Rousseau in England Author:John Churton Collins General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1908 Original Publisher: E. Nash Subjects: England Authors, French Literary Criticism / European / French Philosophy / Political Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy t... more »he General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: MONTESQUIEU IN ENGLAND The year which witnessed the departure of Voltaire from our shores witnessed the advent of another of his illustrious countrymen. Voltaire's memorable visit came to a close in the spring of 1729 ; in the following autumn arrived Montesquieu. The abundant material which throws light on Voltaire's movements and experiences while he was among us is unfortunately not available in the case of Montesquieu. By a singular fatality, or rather series of fatalities, almost all those documents which would have enabled us to trace his career during this interesting part of his life have been destroyed or mislaid. We know from Maty l that he regularly corresponded with Chesterfield -- who was his host during a portion at least of his visit -- and Chesterfield with him ; but of the letters which passed between them not one has been preserved. 1 " Memoirs of Chesterfield," sect. ii. in Chesterfield's Miscellaneous Works, vol. L p. 42. I am enabled by the courtesy of the late Sir Robert Herbert to state that, though there are many memoranda among the Chesterfield papers bearing on the period of Montesquieu's visit, a careful search, most kindly made at my request, has revealed nothing which has any reference to him. It is all but certain that he recorded as fully and carefully his impressions of England and of the English as he did of the other countries which he visited in the course of his travels; but such records are represented only by the Notes sur I'Angleterre,...« less