MONTFAUCON, BERNARD DE. 



MONTGOMERY, JAMES. 



314 



disposed to abandon it. When at last it was completed, he submitted 

 it to the judgment of his friend Helvetius, who, Ky reason principally 

 of its desultory unconnected character, strongly dissuaded him from 

 publication. But whatever misgivings Montesquieu may have had 

 while the work was in progress, were now entirely removed ; and 

 undeterred by the remonstrances of Helvetius, he published, and lie 

 had his reward in an almost universal admiration. Montesquieu did 

 not very long survive the publication. He died in February 1755, 

 after a short but severe illness. 



The personal character of Montesquieu was in every respect 

 excellent. He had married at the age of twenty-six, and his family 

 consisted of a son and two daughters. Through life he practised a 

 rigid economy, on the principle, as we are told by M. d'Alembert, 

 that he ought to transmit his patrimony unimpaired to his children ; 

 but he took care that his economy should not stand in tlie way of 

 charity. In the intercourse of society Montesquieu appears to have 

 been agreeable without being brilliant. 



The writings of Montesquieu show much variety of talent. Even 

 if the ' Esprit des Lois ' bad not been written, the author of the 

 'Lettreg Persanes,' remarkable for their refined humour, and of the 

 ' Temple du Guide,' an exquisite little romance, could not have been 

 forgotten. And without disparaging at all the merits of Montes- 

 quieu's great and best known work, it may be said that these smaller 

 productions are much more perfect in their kind th in is the 'Esprit 

 des Lois ' as a treatise on political science. The chief merits of this 

 work are its agreeable style, its various knowledge, it* ingenious and 

 at the same time sensible mode of treating the art of government, 

 ami its enlightened advocacy of what, not very definitely or correctly, 

 are called the principles of civil liberty. The last-mentioned merit is 

 greater on account of the time at which the work appeared. The 

 defects of the work, on the other hand, are want of system, shallowness, 

 not BO much of knowledge as of thought, and (what is at ouce a sign 

 and a consequence of this shallowness) an undue exaltation of expe- 

 rience over principles. The time again at which the work appeared 

 will serve in the way of extenuation of these defects ; and it is to be 

 remembered also that the plan of the work is professedly inductive 

 rather than scientiiic. The 'Esprit des Lois' has given occasion to a 

 work by M. Destutt de Tracy, which, though partaking in some degree 

 of the vagueness of Montesquieu's work, is very valuable both in 

 itself and as a commentary on the ' Esprit des Lois.' Its title is 

 'Commentaire sur 1'Esprit des Lois.' 



.MONTFAUCON, BERNARD DE, a Benedictine of the congrega- 

 tion of St. Maur, and a very learned antiquary, was born January 

 17th, 1655, at Soulage in Languedoc. He was the son of Timoleon 

 de Montfaucon, lord of lioquetaillade and Conillac, and was the 

 second of four brothers. Ue has himself preserved, in his ' Biblio- 

 theca Bibliothecaruin MSS..' the pedigree of his family, which was 

 originally from Gascony. His early studies were conducted first in his 

 father's castle at Roquetaillade, and afterwards among tbo religious 

 at Limoux. His first profession in life was military, and he served in 

 one or t.vo campaigns in Germany under Marshal Tureune. The 

 death of his parents however, and an officer of distinction under 

 whom he had fought, induced him, after two years, to change bis plan 

 of life, and at the age of twenty, in 1675, he entered the congregation 

 of St. Maur. In this learned Society he bad every opportunity to 

 improve his early education. 



Hi* first work was a supplement to Cotelerins, entitled * Analecta 

 flraeea,' 4to., Paris, 1G38, with notes by him and the fathers Anthony 

 Fouget and James Lopin. In lli'.id he published a small volume 

 entitled ' ha V elite de 1'Histoire de Judith,'T2mo. His next impor- 

 tant work was a new edition of St. Athanusius, in Greek and Latin, 

 3 vols. folio, a labour which established his reputation as a profound 

 scholar. In the same year Montfaucon, who hud turned bis thoughts 

 to more extensive collections of antiquities than had then appeared, 

 determined to visit Italy for the purpose of consulting the manuscripts 

 in the Italian libraries. In this pursuit he parsed three years, and 

 upon bis return in 1702, published an account ot bin journey and 

 research CM in bis 'Diarium Italicum.' 



During Montfaucon's residence at Rome he held the office of pro- 

 curator-general of his congregation at that court ; and while there, in 

 1699, published a little volume in vindication of the Benedictine 

 edition of the works of St. Augustine, in 11 vols. fol., the publication 

 of which had been begun by some able men of his Order, at Antwerp, 

 in 1079, and was not completed till 1700. In 1706 Montfaucon 

 published, in 2 vols. fol., a collection of the ancient Greek ecclesias- 

 tical writers, with a Latin translation, notes, dissertations, &c., and in 

 1708 bis ' Palaeoxraphia Graeca.' In 1709 be published ' Philo-Judaeus 

 0^1 a Contemplative Life,' in French, 'Le Livre de Pbilou de la Via 

 inplative,' &.C., translated from the Greek, with notes, and an 

 attempt to prove that the Therapeutae of whom 1'hilo speaks were 

 Christiana; and in 1710 an 'Epistula' on the fact mentioned by 

 Kufinus Unit ISt. Athauaxius baptised children when himself a child. 

 'J hi-t was followed in 1713 by an edition of what remains of the 

 ' Hexapla ' of Driven, i! voU. lol., and an edition of the works of St. 

 Chry-ostom, begun in 1718, and completed in 1738, 13 voli-. fol. 



In 1715 he published his Bibliotueca Conlmiana,' fol., Paris; and 

 in 171 U, the year in which he was chosen a member of the Academy 

 of Inscriptions and Bellej-Lettre*, his great work, entitled ' L'Auti- 



quite* Expliquee et Represented en Figures,' Paris, 5 vols. fol., to which 

 iu 1724, was added a Supplement in 5 vols. This work has proved 

 an almost inexhaustible min of wealth to succeeding students of the 

 history of art. It was followed by another interesting work, ' Les 

 Monuments de la Fraucoise,' 5 vols. fol., Paris, 1729-1733. His last 

 aud not the least important of his works was his ' Bibliotheca Biblio- 

 thecarutn MSS. nova," 2 vols. fol., Paris, 1739. Montfaucou died 

 suddenly at the Abbey of St. Germain de 1'res, December 21, 1741, 

 at the advanced age of eighty-seven. Besides the works already 

 enumerated, he contributed many curious and valuable essays on 

 subjects of antiquity to the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions 

 and Belles- Lettres, as well as to other literary journals. 



MONTFORT, SIMON DE. [HENRY III.] 



MONTGOMERY, ALEXANDER, an old Scottish poet, was a 

 younger sou of a good family in Ayrshire. The Bannatyne Manuscript, 

 written in 1568, contains some of his verses : but the very few events 

 of his life which are exactly known fall within the reign of Jau.es VI. 

 of Scotland. He is described as having been a captain, probably in 

 the guard of Morton the regent. King James quotes some of his 

 poems in a work of his own, published in 1582; and he obtained a 

 pension of five hundred Scottish marks, which led him into a trouble- 

 some law-suit on his return from a continental tour, be^un in 1586. 

 He appears to have died between 1607 and 1611. In the former of 

 those years was published his principal work, an allegorical poem, 

 called ' The Cherry and the blae ' (or Sloe). This poem is still popular 

 in Scotland, and has been very frequently reprinted in a cheap form. 

 It, and the author's sonnets and other poems, are both lively in fancy 

 and pleasing in versification. In 1822 there appeared at Edinburgh 

 a neat edition of all his poems, edited by Mr. Laing, with a biographical 

 preface by Dr. Irving. 



MONTGOMERY, JAMES, was born at Irvine in Ayrshire, where 

 his father was a Moravian preacher, on November 4, 1771. When 

 only four years of age his parents removed to Grace Hill iu the 

 county of Antrim, Ireland, where he was first placed at school. In 

 1778 he was sent to the Moravian settlement at Fuineck ue:ir Leeds, 

 in Yorkshire, to complete his education, and in 1733 his father and 

 mother went to the West Indies as missionaries, where they died in 



1790. At Fuineck the instruction was excellent, but the seclusion 

 was monastic, and James Montgomery, during his ten years' residence 

 there, distinguished himself for nothing ''but indolence and melan- 

 choly." He had taken a fancy for poetry, which was utterly forbidden 

 in the school; he had clandestinely read 'Robinson Crusoe,' which 

 had greatly interested him ; and he wrote, when only thirteen, .some 

 poor imitations of Moravian hymns. Though characterised by his 

 teachers as indolent, he had contrived to procure and read a copy of 

 Cowper's poems, and these he thought he could excel, so he wrote a 

 mock-heroic poem of a thousand lines, and commenced a serious epic, to 

 be called ' The World,' aud this before he was fourteen. He also wrote 

 other small poems, but his teachers, who wished him to become a 

 Moravian preacher, were dissatisfied with his inattention to his studies. 

 Iu the school-diary of July 3, 1787, it is recorded that, as "J. M., 

 notwithstanding repeated admonitions, has not been more attentive, 

 it was resolved to put him to a business, at least for a time." A 

 situation was soon afterwards found for him with a shopkeeper at 

 Mirfield. He was probably not much more attentive there, for it is 

 stated that he continued to write poetry and compose music till June 

 1789, when ho ran away. He had only a trifle of money when he 

 started ; but ou re-tching \Ventworth, he presented one of tiis smaller 

 poems to Earl Fitzwilham, who gave him a guinea. He then settled 

 for a twelvemonth at Wath upon Dearne as assistant in a general shop. 

 The brethren at Fulueck discovered him, aud wished him to return ; 

 but he refused. He continued iu tuis situation, silent aud recluse, 

 but no doubt pondering over thoughts for which as yet he wanted 

 fitting powers of expression. 



He continued to write, and at the end of the year having sent a 

 volume of manuscript poetry to Mr. Harrison, the publisher in Pater- 

 noster-row, London, followed it himself. Mr. Harrison declined 

 publishing the poems, but engaged him as shopman. In London he 

 led the same solitary and retired lite as in the country. His sole 

 aiuusement was writing, and he is stated to have never entered a 

 theatre, or even the British Museum, to which it might have been 

 thought his habits and disposition would have led him. While in 

 London his first production, a tale in prose, entitled ' The Chimera,' 

 appeared in ' The Bee,' an Edinburgh periodical work, iu November 



1791. He also wrote a novel, which he offered to Mr. Lane, of 

 Minerva-press celebrity, who declined it, because the characters swore 

 too much. The novel was never published, but the objection greatly 

 hurt tue religious feelings of Montgomery, who thought he haa only 

 imitated Fielding and Smollett. This disappointment made him 

 resolve to return to his old shopkeeping occupation at Wath. He did 

 go, but not to remain long. Towards the end of 17U2 (having replied 

 to an advertisement for a clerk), he entered tue service of Mr. Joseph 

 Gales of Sheffield, who was printer, bookoelKr, auctioneer, aud editor, 

 publisher and proprietor of a newspaper, ' The Sheffield Register,' 

 which advocated principles at that time designated as revolutionary. 

 Montgomery formed an attachment to his employer; wrote political 

 articles for the paper ; aud when Gale?, learning that a warrant had 

 beeu issued to apprehend him for treason, fled to America, ha started 



