Joseph de Maistre 's Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions seeks to discuss the origins of political constitutions and what truly makes a successful, legitimate constitution and government. Maistre 's thesis argues that it is an error “to believe that a political constitution could be written and created a priori, whilst reason and experience unite in establishing, that a constitution is a divine work, and that that which is a fundamental, and most essentially constitutional, in the laws of a nation, is precisely what cannot be written” (p.5). That is to say, constitutions cannot be fabricated by man with theory and words, but rather created by the unwritten and unquestionable authority of God. Maistre supports this