Again, in the mass of the political articles we feel the immense impulse that was given to sociological discussion by the Esprit des Lois.

Few questions are debated here, which Montesquieu had not raised, and none are debated without reference to Montesquieu's line of argument.

The change of which we are conscious in turning from the Esprit des Lois to the Encyclopaedia is that political ideas have been grasped as instruments.

Philosophy has become patriotism.

The Encyclopaedists advanced with grave solicitude to the consideration of evils, to which the red-heeled parasites of Versailles were insolently and incorrigibly blind.
The articles on Agriculture, for example, are admirable alike for the fulness and precision with which they expose the actual state of France; for the clearness with which they trace its deplorable inadequateness back to the true sources; and for the strong interest and sympathy in the subject, which they both exhibit and inspire.