action of the extremities of the fibres are better performed, the temperature of the humours is greater, the blood moves freer towards the heart, and reciprocally the heart has more power. This fuperiority of strength muft produce various effects; for inftance, a greater boldnefs, that is, more courage; a greater fenfe of fuperiority, that is, lefs defire of revenge; a greater opinion of fecurity, that is more frankness, lefs fufpicion, policy, and cunning In fhort, this must be productive of very different tempers. Put a man into a close warm place, and for the reafons above given, he will feel a great faintnefs. If under this circumftance you propofe a bold enterprize to him, I believe you will find him very little difpofed towards it his prefent weakness will throw him into a defpondency; he will be afraid of every thing, being in a state of total incapacity. The inhabitants of warm countries are, like old men, timorous; the people in cold countries are, like young men, brave. If we reflect on the late * wars, which are more recent in our memory, and in which we can better dif tinguifh fome particulrr effects that efcape us at a greater diftance of time; we fhall find that the northern people tranfplanted into fouthern regions †, did not perform fuch exploits as their countrymen, who, fighting in their own climate, poffeffed their full vigor and courage.

This ftrength of the fibres in northern nations is the cause that the coarfer juices are extracted from their aliments. From hence two things re

Thofe for the fucceffion to the Spanish Monarchy.
For instance in Spain.

Book XIV. Chap. 2.

Y 4.

fult:

XIV.

Chap. z.

Book refult one, that the parts of the chyle or lymph are more proper by reafon of their large furface, to be applied to, and to nourish, the fibres: the other, that they are lefs proper, from their coarsenefs, to give a certain fubtilty to the nervous juice. Those people have therefore large bodies and but little vivacity.

The nerves that terminate from all parts in the cutis, form each a nervous bundle; generally fpeaking, the whole nerve is not moved, but a very minute part. In warm climates where the cutis is relaxed, the ends of the nerves are expanded and laid open to the weakest action of the fmallest objects. In cold countries the cutis is conftringed and the papillæ compreffed; the miliary glands are in fome measure paralytic; and the fenfation does not reach the brain, but when it is very ftrong and proceeds from the whole nerve at once. Now imagination, tafte, fenfibility, and vivacity, depend on an infinite number of fmall fenfations.

I have obferved the outermoft part of a sheep's tongue, where to the naked eye it feems covered with papillæ. On thefe papillæ, I have difcerned through a microfcope, fmall hairs or a kind of down; between the papillæ were pyramids fhaped towards the ends like pincers. Very likely these pyramids are the principal organ of taste.

I caufed the half of this tongue to be frozen, and obferving it with the naked eye I found the papillæ confiderably diminished: even fome rows of them were funk into their fheath. The outermoft part I examined with the microscope, and perceived no pyramids. In proportion as the

froft

Воок

froft went off, the papillæ feemed to the naked eye XIV. to rife, and with the microfcope the miliary glands Chap. 2.

began to appear.

This obfervation confirms what I have been faying, that in cold countries the nervous glands are lefs expanded: they fink deeper into their fheaths, or they are fheltered from the action of external objects: confequently they have not fuch lively fenfations.

In cold countries, they have very little fenfibility for pleasure; in temperate countries, they have more; in warm countries, their fenfibility is exquifite. As climates are diftinguished by degrees of latitude, we might diftinguish them alfo in fome measure, by thofe of fenfibility. I have been at the opera in England and in Italy; where I have feen the fame pieces and the fame performers and yet the fame music produces fuch different effects on the two nations; one is fo cold and phlegmatic, and the other fo lively and enraptured, that it feems almoft inconceivable.

It is the fame with regard to pain; which is excited by the laceration of fome fibre of the body. The author of nature has made it an established rule that this pain fhould be more acute in proportion as the laceration is greater now it is evident, that the large bodies and coarfe fibres of the people of the north, are lefs capable of laceration than the delicate fibres of the inhabitants. of warm countries; confequently the foul is there lefs fenfible of pain. You must flay a Muscovite alive to make him feel.

From this delicacy of organs peculiar to warm climates, it follows that the foul is most fenfibly

XIV.

BOOK moved by whatever relates to the union of the two
Chap. 2. fexes here every thing leads to this object.

In northern climates fcarce has the animal part
of love a power of making itself felt. In temperate
climates, love attended by a thousand appendages,
endeavours to please by things that have at first
the appearance, though not the reality of this paf-
fion. In warmer climates it is liked for its own
fake, it is the only cause of happiness, it is life
itself.

In northern

In fouthern countries a machine of a delicate
frame, but ftrong fenfibility, refigns itself either
to a love which rifes and is inceffantly laid in a
feraglio; or to a paffion which leaves women in
a greater independence, and is confequently ex-
posed to a thousand inquietudes.
regions a machine robuft and heavy, finds a plea-
fure in whatever is apt to throw the fpirits into
motion, fuch as hunting, travelling, war, and
wine. If we travel towards the north, we meet
with people who have few vices, many virtues,
and a great share of franknefs and fincerity. If
we draw near the fouth, we fancy ourselves intirely
removed from the verge of morality here the
ftrongest paffions are productive of all manner
of crimes, each man endeavouring, let the means
be what they will, to indulge his inordinate de-
fires. In temperate climates we find the inha-
bitants inconftant in their manners, as well as in
their vices and virtues: the climate has not a qua-
lity determinate enough to fix them.

The heat of the climate may be fo exceffive as
to deprive the body of all vigor and ftrength.

Then

XIV.

Then the faintnefs is communicated to the mind; Book there is no curiofity, no enterprize, no generofity Chap. 3. of fentiment; the inclinations are all paffive; indolence conftitutes the utmost happiness; fcarcely any punishment is fo fevere as mental employment; and flavery is more fupportable than the force and vigor of mind neceffary for human conduct.

CHA P. III.

Contradiction in the Tempers of fome fouthern
Nations.

*

THE Indians are naturally a pufillanimous people; even the children of Europeans born in India lofe the courage peculiar to their own climate. But how fhall we reconcile this with their customs, and penances fo full of barbarity? the men voluntarily undergo the greatest hardships; and the women burn themfelves: here we find a very odd compound of fortitude and weakness.

Nature having framed thofe people of a texture fo weak as to fill them with timidity, has formed them at the fame time of an imagination fo lively, that every object makes the ftrongest impreffion upon them. That delicacy of organs which renders them apprehenfive of death, contributes likewife to make them dread a thousand things more than death the very fame fenfibility induces them to fly, and dare, all dangers.

*One hundred European foldiers, fays Tavernier, would without any great difficulty beat a thousand Indian foldiers.

+ Even the Perfians, who fettle in the Indies, contract in the third generation the indolence and cowardice of the Indians. See Bernier, on the Mogul, Tom. 1. p. 182.

As