A Commentary And Review of Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws

[Destutt de Tracy, Antoine Louis Claude, Comte. [Jefferson, Thomas]. A Commentary and Review of Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws, Prepared For Press From the Original Manuscript in the Hands of the Publisher. To Which Are Annexed, Observations on the Thirty-First Book, by the Late M. Condorcet: And Two Letters of Helveticus, on the Merits of the Same Work. Philadelphia: Duane, 1811. viii, 292 pp. Reprinted 2006 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN-13: 978-1-58477-654-3. ISBN-10: 1-58477-654-4. Cloth. $75. * Reprint of the first edition. This incisive critique was written around 1807 by Tracy [1754-1836], a French philosopher and path-breaking psychologist who was a friend of Jefferson [1743-1826]. Jefferson saw the Commentary when it was still a manuscript and was so impressed that he took pains to have it printed. He even helped with the translation and corrected the page proofs. Although the translation was published anonymously, we can identify the author and translators through a letter by Jefferson dated January 26, 1811. Elsewhere in this letter he commends it for correcting the Spirit of the Laws. While other studies had merely “nibbled only at its errors…This want is now supplied, and with a depth of thought, recision of idea, of language and of logic, which will force conviction into every mind. I declare to you, Sir, in the spirit of truth and sincerity, that I consider it the most precious gift the present age has received.”: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson V:566-571.