Illustrious French publicist, born in the Chateau La Brède, near Bordeaux; his greatest work, and an able, "Esprit des Lois," though rated in "Sartor" as at best the work of "a clever infant spelling letters from a hieroglyphic prophetic book, the lexicon of which lies in eternity, in heaven"; was author of an able work "On the Causes of the Grandeur of the Romans and their Declension" (1689-1755).