asking his permission; the inquisitor makes his apology before burning a Jew. In a more serious vein is the description, so often quoted, of the ruin and desolation caused by the trampling of the Ottoman hoof. No law, no security of life or property: arts, learning, navigation, commerce, all in decay. 'In all this vast extent of territory which I have traversed,' says the Persian after his journey through Asia Minor, 'I have found but one city which has any wealth, and it is to the presence of Europeans that the wealth of Smyrna is due.'
The success of the Persian Letters was brilliant and instantaneous[1], and Montesquieu at once became a leading personage in Parisian society. He took lodgings in the most fashionable quarter[2], paid his devotions to Mlle de Clermont at Chantilly, was a favourite guest at the salon of the Marquise de Lambert, and through these influences obtained, though not without a struggle, a seat in the Academy. But he was dissatisfied with his reception there, and made up his mind to travel.
In the year 1728, when Montesquicu set out on his travels, the international politics of Europe were in a singularly confused and tangled position. Congress after congress, treaty after treaty, succeeded each other with bewildering rapidity and with little permanent effect. In Germany, Charles VI, the last male
- ↑ 'Les Lettres Persanes eurent d'abord un débit si prodigieux que les libraires de Hollande mirent tout en usage pour en avoir des suites. Ils alloient tirer par la manche tous ceux qu'ils rencontroient; Monsieur, disoient-ils, faites-moi des Lettres Persanes.—Pensées, Collection Bordelaise, i. 46.
- ↑ Vian talks about his having joined the well-known Entresol Club. But d'Argenson's list of its members (Mémoires, p. 248, edition of 1825; i. 93, edition of 1859) does not contain his name.
