The Presence of Montaigne in the Lettres Persanes

Both Montaigne and Montesquieu were nobles from Gascony and representatives of the landed gentry, magistrates, and, above all, humanists and advocates of enlightenment. They held similar philosophical ideas on man's senses, stoicism, and suicide. They believed in the basic immutability of society's laws. As skeptical philosophers, they showed that ideas and theories are relative to society's constitution, that the object of love depends on health or whim, that gods are created according to our needs, that laws depend on the relative capability (or stupidity) of legislators. In the secret language of letter 66, Montesquieu chose Montaigne as the model of his 'Lettres persanes' and there revealed their close relationship as wits and humanists, each with a grand variety of sources.