The laws of Minos, of Lycurgus and of Plato, fuppofe a particular attention and care which the citizens ought to have over one another's conduct. But an attention of this kind cannot be expected in the confufion and multitude of affairs in which a large nation is entangled.

In inftitutions of this kind, money, as we have above obferved, must be banished. But in great focieties, the multiplicity, variety, embarraffment and importance of affairs, as well as the facility of purchafing, and the flownefs of exchange, require a common measure. In order to extend or fupport our power, we must be poffeffed of the means to which, by the unanimous consent of mankind, this power is annexed.

CHAP. VIII.

Explication of a paradox of the ancients, in respect to manners

THAT judicious writer Polybius informs us, that mufic was neceffary to foften the manners of the Arcadians, who lived in a cold gloomy country; that the inhabitants of Cynete, who flighted mufic, were the cruelleft of all the Greeks, and that no other town was fo immersed in luxury and debauch. Plato is not afraid to affirm, that there is no poffibility of making a change in mufic, without changing likewife the frame of government. Ariftotle, who feems to have wrote his politics only in order to contradict Plato, agrees with him notwithstanding, in regard to the power and influence of mufic over the manners of the people. This was also the opinion of Theophraftus, of Plutarch, and of all the ancients; an opinion grounded on mature reflection; being one of the principles of their politics +. Thus it was they enacted laws, and thus they required that cities fhould be governed.

* Life of Pelopidas.

† Plato, in his fourth book of laws, fays, that the præfectures of mufic and gymnastic exercises are the most important employ

This, I fancy, may be explained in the following manner. It is obfervable, that in the cities of Greece, efpecially thofe whofe principal object was war, all lucrative arts and profeffions were confidered as unworthy of a freeman. "Moft arts," fays Xenophon*, "corrupt and enervate the bodies of those that exercise "them; they oblige them to fit under a fhade or near "the fire. They can find no leifure, either for their "friends, or for the republic." It was only by the corruption of fome democracies that artifans became freemen. This we learn from Ariftotle †, who maintains, that a well-regulated republic will never give them the right and freedom of the city .

Agriculture was likewife a fervile profeffion, and generally practifed by the inhabitants of conquered countries; fuch as the Helotes among the Lacedæmonians, the Periecians among the Cretans, the Peneftes among the Theffalians, and other conquered || people in other republics.

*

In fine, every kind of low commerce was infamous among the Greeks; as it obliged a citizen to ferve and wait on a slave, on a lodger, on a ftranger. This was a notion that clashed with the spirit of Greek liberty: hence Plato in his laws orders a citizen to be punished, if he attempted to concern himself with trade.

ments in the city; and, in his Republic, book 3. "Damon will "tell you, (fays he) what founds are capable of inspiring a mean"nefs of foul, infolence and the contrary virtues."

* Book 5. of Memorable Sayings.

+ Polit. book 3. chap. 4.

Diophantes, fays Ariftotle, Polit. chap. 7. made a law formerly at Athens, that artisans should be slaves to the republic.

Plato likewife and Ariftotle require flaves to till the land. Laws, book 5. Polit. book 7. c. 10. It is true that agriculture was not every where exercifed by flaves; on the contrary, Ariftotle obferves, the best republics were thofe in which the citizens themfelves tilled the land: but this was brought about by the corruption of the ancient governments, which were become democratical; for in earlier times the cities of Greece were subject to an aristocratic government.

Thus in Greek republics the magiftrates were extremely embarraffed. They would not have the citizens apply themselves to trade, to agriculture, or to the arts; and yet they would not have them idle *. They found therefore employment for them in gymnaftic and military exercises; and none elfe were allowed by their inftitution t. Hence the Greeks must be confidered as a fociety of wrestlers and boxers. Now, these exercises having a natural tendency to render people hardy and fierce, there was a neceffity for tempering them with others that might soften their manners. For this pofe, mufic, which influences the mind by means of the corporeal organs, was extremely proper. It is a kind of a medium between the bodily exercifes that render men fierce and hardy, and speculative fciences that render them unfociable and four. It cannot be faid that mufic inspired virtue, for this would be inconceivable: but it prevented the effects of a favage inftitution, and enabled the foul to have fuch a fhare in the education, as it could never have had without the affiftance of harmony.

pur

Let us fuppofe among ourselves a fociety of men fo paffionately fond of hunting, as to make it their fole employment; thefe people would doubtlefs contract thereby a kind of rufticity and fierceness. But if they happened to receive a tafte for mufic, we fhould quickly perceive a fenfible difference in their customs and manners. In fhort, the exercises used by the Greeks excited only one kind of paffions, viz. fiercenefs, anger and cruelty. But mufic excites them all; and is able to infpire the foul with a fenfe of pity, lenity, tenderness and love. Our moral writers, who declaim fo vehemently against the ftage, fufficiently demonftrate the power of mufic over the foul.

*Ariftot. Polit. lib. 10.

+ Ars corporum exercendorum gymnaftica, variis certaminibus terendorum padotribica. Arift. Polit. lib. 8. c. 3.

Ariftotle obferves, that the children of the Lacedæmonians, who began these exercises at a very tender age, contracted from thence too great a ferocity and rudeness of behaviour.

If the fociety above-mentioned were to have no other mufic than that of drums and the found of the trumpet; would it not be more difficult to accomplish this end, than by the more melting tones of fofter harmony? The ancients were therefore in the right, when under particular circumstances they preferred one mode to another in regard to manners.

But fome will afk, Why fhould mufie be pitched upon preferable to any other entertainment? It is because of all fenfible pleasures, there is none that lefs corrupts the foul. We blush to read in Plutarch ||, that the Thebans, in order to foften the manners of their youth, authorized by law a paffion that ought to be profcribed by all nations.

BOOK V.

That the Laws given by the Legislator ought to be relative to the Principle of Government.

CHA P. I.

Idea of this book.

HAT the laws of education ought to be relative

THA to the principle of each government, has been

fhewn in the preceding book. Now, the fame may be faid of those which the legislator gives to the whole fociety. This relation of laws to this principle, ftrengthens the several springs of government; and this principle receives from thence, in its turn, a new degree of ftrength. And thus it is in phyfics; action is always followed by re-action.

Our defign is to examine this relation in each government, beginning with the republican ftate, whofe principle is virtue.

Life of Pelopidas.

CHA P. II.

What is meant by virtue in a political ftate.

IRTUE in a republic is a moft fimple thing; it is

a love for the republic; it is a fenfation, and not a confequence of acquired knowledge; a fenfation that may be felt by the meaneft as well as by the highest perfon in the ftate. When the common people adopt good maxims, they adhere to them fteadier than those we call gentlemen. It is very rare that corruption commences with the former; nay they frequently derive from their imperfect light a ftronger attachment to the eftablished laws and cuftoms.

The love of our country is conducive to a purity of morals, and the latter is again conducive to the love of our country. The lefs we are able to fatisfy our particular paffions, the more we abandon ourselves to thofe of a general nature. How comes it that monks are fo fond of their order? It is owing to the very caufe that renders the order infupportable to themselves. Their rule debars them of all thofe things by which the ordinary paffions are fed; there remains therefore only this paffion for the very rule that torments them. The more auftere it is, that is, the more it curbs their inclinations, the more force it gives to the only paffion it leaves them.

CHA P. III.

What is meant by a love of the republic in a democracy.

A

LOVE of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy; a love of the democracy is that of equality.

A love of the democracy is likewife that of frugality. As every individual ought to have here the fame happiness and the same advantages, they ought confequently