Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu, was a French social and political philosopher whose ideas profoundly influenced European and American political thought, particularly that of America’s founding fathers. He spent 15 years working on his masterpiece, De l’Esprit des lois—On the Spirit of the Laws—an immense comparative analysis of various forms of government comprising more than 600 chapters. What concept did he famously put forth in this work? Discuss