armies in the name of God or a Machiavellian ruler-left Montaigne and Montesquieu with few solutions. Montaigne served briefly as mayor of Bordeaux and, Shklar says, "did as little as possible, a policy that he defended as the least harmful course."
Montesquieu, somewhat more hopeful, believed politics and morals could be kept separate. It was possible, he thought, to change social behavior through laws, as the English had done, without altering in- dividual morals. But even he joined...