The laws of Minos, of Lycurgus, and of Plato, suppose 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 confusion, and multitude of affairs in which a large nation is entangled.

In institutions of this kind, money, as we have above observed, must be banished. But in great societies, the multiplicity, variety, embarrassment, and importance of affairs, as well as the facility of purchasing, and the slowness of exchange, require a common measure. In order to extend or support our power, we must be possessed 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 music was necessary to soften the manners of the Arcadians, who lived in a cold gloomy country; that the inhabitants of Cynete, who slighted music, were the cruelest of all the Greeks, and that no other town was so immersed in luxury and debauch. Plato is not afraid to affirm, that there is no possibility of making a change in music, without altering the frame of government. Aristotle, who seems to have written his Politics, only in order to contradict Plato, agrees with him, notwithstanding, in regard to the power and influence of music over the manners of the people. This was also the opinion of Theophrastus, of Plutarch,* and of all the ancients; an opinion grounded on mature reflexion; being one of the principles of their polity. Thus it was they enacted laws, and thus they required that cities should be governed.

This I fancy must be explained in the following manner. It is observable, that in the cities of Greece, especially those whose principal object was war, all lucrative arts and

Life of Pelopidas.

+ Plato, in his fourth book of laws, says, that the præfectures of music and gymnic exercises are the most important employments in the city; and, in his Republic, Book III. Damon will tell you, says he, what sounds are capable of corrupting the mind with base sentiments, or of inspiring the contrary virtues.

professions were considered as unworthy of a freeman. Most arts, says Xenophon,* corrupt and enervate the bodies of those that exercise them; they oblige them to sit under a shade, or near the fire. They can find no leisure, either for their friends, or for the republic. It was only by the corruption of some democracies that artisans became freemen. This we learn from Aristotle,† who maintains, that a well-regulated republic will never give them the right and freedom of the city.t

Agriculture was likewise a servile profession, and generally practised by the inhabitants of conquered countries, such as the Helotes among the Lacedæmonians, the Periecians among the Cretans, the Penestes among the Thessalians, 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 serve and wait on a slave, on a lodger, or a stranger. 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.

Thus in the Greek republics the magistrates were extremely embarrassed. 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 gymnic and military exercises; and none else were allowed by their institution.++ Hence the Greeks must be considered as a society of wrestlers and boxers. Now, these exercises having a natural tendency to render people hardy and fierce, there was a necessity for tempering them with others that might soften their manners. For this purpose, music, which influences the mind by means of the corporeal

* Book 5th of Memorable Sayings.

+ Polit. book 3. chap. 4.

Diophantes, says Aristotle, Polit. ch. 7. made a law formerly at Athens, that artisans should be slaves to the republic.

§ Plato, likewise, and Aristotle require slaves to till the land, Laws, Book V. Polit. Book VII. c. 10. True it is, that agriculture was not every where exercised by slaves: on the contrary, Aristotle observes, the best republics were those in which the citizens themselves 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.

|| Cauponatio.

¶ Book 2.

**Arist. Polit. lib. 10.

Ars corporum exercendorum gymnastica, variis certaminibus terendorum pœdotribica. Aristotle Polit. 1. 8. c. 3.

Aristotle observes, 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. Polit. lib. 8. c. 4.

organs, was extremely proper. It is a kind of a medium between manly exercises which harden the body, and speculative sciences which are apt to render us unsociable and sour. It cannot be said that music inspired virtue, for this would be inconceivable but it prevented the effects of a savage institution, and enabled the soul to have such a share in the education, as it could never have had without the assistance of harmony.

Let us suppose among ourselves a society of men, so passionately fond of hunting, as to make it their sole employment; they would doubtless contract thereby, a kind of rusticity and fierceness. But if they happen to imbibe a taste for music, we should quickly perceive a sensible difference in their customs and manners. the Greeks could raise only one kind of passions, viz. fierceIn short the exercises used by ness, indignation, and cruelty. But music excites all these; and is likewise able to inspire the soul with a sense of pity, lenity, tenderness, and love. Our moral writers, who declaim so vehemently against the stage, sufficiently demonstrate the power of music over the mind.

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

But some will ask, why should music be pitched upon preferable to any other entertainment? sensible pleasures, there is none that less corrupts the soul. It is, because of all We blush to read in Plutarch that the Thebans, in order to soften the manners of their youth, authorised by law a passion, which ought to be proscribed by all nations.

* Life of Pelopidas.

BOOK V.

THAT THE LAWS GIVEN BY THE LEGISLATOR OUGHT TO BE RELATIVE TO THE PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT.

CHAP. I.

Idea of this Book.

THAT the laws of education ought to be relative to the principle of each government, has been shown in the preceding book. Now the same may be said of those which the legislator gives to the whole society. The relation of laws to this principle, strengthens the several springs of government; and this principle derives from thence, in its turn, a new degree of vigour. And thus it is in mechanics, that action is always followed by reaction.

Our design is, to examine this relation in each government, beginning with the republican state, whose principle is virtue.

CHAP. II.

What is meant by Virtue in a political State.

VIRTUE in a republic is a most simple thing; it is a love of the republic; it is a sensation, and not a consequence of acquired knowledge: a sensation, that may be felt by the meanest as well as by the highest person in the state. When the common people adopt good maxims, they adhere to them steadier than those we call gentlemen. It is very rare that corruption commences with the former: nay they frequently derive from their imperfect light a stronger attachment to the established laws and customs.

The love of our country is conducive to a purity of morals, and the latter is again conducive to the former. The less we are able to satisfy our private passions, the more we abandon

ourselves to those of a general nature. How comes it that monks are so fond of their order? It is owing to the very cause that renders the order insupportable. Their rule debars them of all those things by which the ordinary passions are fed; there remains therefore only this passion for the very rule that torments them. The more austere it is, that is, the more it curbs their inclinations, the more force it gives to the only passion left them.

CHAP. 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; as the latter is that of equality.

A love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality. Since every individual ought here to enjoy the same happiness and the same advantages, they should consequently taste the same pleasures and form the same hopes, which cannot be expected but from a general frugality.

The love of equality in a democracy, limits ambition to the sole desire, to the sole happiness of doing greater services to our country than the rest of our fellow citizens. They cannot all render her equal services, but they all ought to serve her with equal alacrity. At our coming into the world, we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.

Hence distinctions here arise from the principle of equality, even when it seems to be removed by signal services, or superior abilities.

The love of frugality limits the desire of having to the study of procuring necessaries to our family, and superfluities to our country. Riches give a power which a citizen cannot use for himself, for then he would be no longer equal. They likewise procure pleasures which he ought not to enjoy, because these would be also repugnant to the equality.

Thus well-regulated democracies, by establishing domestic frugality, made way at the same time for public expenses, as was the case at Rome and Athens, when magnificence and profusion arose from the very fund of frugality. And as religion commands us to have pure and unspotted hands when we make our offerings to the gods, the laws required a frugality of life to enable them to be liberal to our country.

The good sense and happiness of individuals depend greatly