Montesquieu on the Scottish Referendum

(Note also how Montesquieu, an admirer of English government “which continually examines itself” rebuffs Marx – before his time – while endorsing Newton’s Third Law of Motion and the “harmony” of political liberty).[1]

… as a general rule, whenever we see everyone tranquil in a state that calls itself a republic, we can be sure that liberty does not exist there … In a state where we seem to see nothing but commotion there can be union – that is, a harmony resulting in happiness, which alone is true peace.  It is as with the parts of the universe, eternally linked together by the action of some and the reaction of others.[2]

 ~ Montesquieu, The Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline (1734)

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[1] Montesquieu, Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline, tr. David Lowenthal (Indianapolis IN: Hackett, 1999), p. 88. (Ch. 8)

[2] Ibid., pp. 93,94. (Ch. 9)