Montesquieu

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, was born in 1689 at the château of La Brède near Bordeaux; at his baptism a beggar stood as his godfather, so that he would never forget the poor. He inherited his uncle's title and the office of president of the Parlement of Bordeaux, but cared less for the bench than for science and letters. At thirty-two he became famous overnight with the anonymous Persian Letters; he later sold his office and travelled through Europe, spending nearly two years in England, where he studied its political system closely. He then spent almost twenty years writing The Spirit of the Laws, and in old age was nearly blind.