Engaging with Great Books Redounds to Your Benefit

I think of The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu’s magnum opus from which this month’s selection, “Principles of Government,” is taken, as a work of political philosophy. Montesquieu’s arguments, however, are often based on examples from history. In his chapter “Of the Principle of Democracy,” he cites examples from classical antiquity and seventeenth-century England.

Montesquieu writes of ancient Rome: “When Sylla thought of restoring Rome to her liberty, this unhappy city was incapable of receiving that blessing. She had only the feeble remains of virtue, which were continually diminishing. Instead of being roused from her lethargy by Caesar, Tiberius, Caius Claudius, Nero, and Domitian, she riveted every day her chains; if she struck some blows, her aim was at the tyrant, not at the tyranny.” (Nugent, trans.)

This paragraph had me running to Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans to fill in gaps in my knowledge about Rome. Reading one great book often leads you to other great books.

Robert Maynard Hutchins, former president of the University of Chicago and a leading light of the post-World War II movement for continuing adult liberal education that led to the establishment of the Great Books Foundation, wrote in his book The Great Conversation that great books “enlarge our fund of ideas.” In my reading of Montesquieu as a philosophical book supported by historical examples, I’ve also picked up some useful history on the way.