Chap. 3.

BOOK great expence, for the country furnishes none. It XVIII. is then a more arduous, a more dangerous enterprize, to make war againft them; and all the laws that can be enacted for the fafety of the people are there of leaft ufe.

CHA P. III.

What Countries are beft cultivated.

COUNTRIES

OUNTRIES are not cultivated in proportion to their fertility, but to their li berty; and if we make an imaginary divifion of the earth, we fhall be aftonished to fee in most ages, deferts in the most fruitful parts, and great nations in thofe, where nature feems to refuse every thing.

It is natural for a people to leave a bad foil to feek a better; and not to leave a good foil to go in fearch of worfe. Moft invafions have therefore been made in countries, which nature feems to have formed for happinefs: and as nothing is more nearly allied than defolation and invafion, the best provinces are most frequently depopulated; while the frightful countries of the north continue always inhabited, from their being almoft uninhabitable.

We find by what hiftorians tells us of the paffage of the people of Scandinavia, along the banks of the Danube, that this was not a conqueft, but only a migration into defert countries.

Thefe happy climates must therefore have been depopulated by other migrations, though we know not the tragical scenes that happened.

st

493

XVIII.

who wrote

It appears by many monuments of antiquity, Book fays Ariftotle (), that the Sardinians were a Chap. 4"Grecian colony. They were formerly very () Or he rich; and Arifteus, fo famed for his love of the book agriculture, was their law-giver. But they are De Mira "fince fallen to decay; for the Carthaginians becoming their mafters, destroyed every thing pro

per for the nourishment of man, and forbad "the cultivation of the lands on pain of death." Sardinia was not recovered in the time of Aristotle, nor is it to this day.

The moft temperate parts of Perfia, Turky, Mufcovy, and Poland, have not been able to recover perfectly from the devaftations of the Tartars.

CHA P. IV.

New Effects of the Fertility and Barrenness of

Countries.

THE barrenness of the earth renders men in

duftrious, fober, inured to hardship, courageous, and fit for war; they are obliged to procure by labour what the earth refufes to bestow fpontaneously. The fertility of a country gives eafe, effeminacy, and a certain fondness for the prefervation of life. It has been remarked that the German troops raised in thofe places where the peasants are rich, as for inftance, in Saxony, are not fo good as the others. Military laws may provide against this inconvenience by a more fevere difcipliné.

hilibus.

Воок XVIII. Chap. 5.

and 6.

CHAP. V.

Of the Inhabitants of Iflands.

THE inhabitants of iflands have a higher re

lifh for liberty than thofe of the continent. Islands are commonly of a fmall* extent; one part of the people cannot be fo easily employed to opprefs the other; the fea feparates them from great empires; tyranny cannot fo well fupport itself within a fmall compafs; conquerors are ftopped by the fea; and the islanders being without the reach of their arms, more eafily preferve their own laws.

CH A P. VI.

Of Countries raised by the Industry of Man.

HOSE countries which the industry of man

TH

has rendered habitable, and which ftand in need of the fame industry to provide for their fubfiftence, require a mild and moderate government. There are principally three of this fpecies, the two fine provinces of Kiang-nan and Tcekiang in China, Egypt, and Holland.

The ancient emperors of China were not conquerors. The first thing they did to aggrandize themselves, was what gave the highest proof of their wisdom. They raised from beneath the waters two of the finest provinces of the empire; these owe their existence to the labour of man. And it is the inexpreffible fertility of these two provinces, which has given Europe fuch ideas of the felicity

Japan is an exception to this, by its great extent as well as by its flavery.

of

XVIII.

of that vaft country. But a continual and neceffary BooK care to preserve from deftruction fo confiderable chap. 7. a part of the empire, demanded rather the manners of a wife, than of a voluptuous nation; rather the lawful authority of a monarch, than the tyrannic fway of a defpotic prince. Power was therefore neceffarily moderated in that country, as it was formerly in Egypt, and as it is now in Holland, which nature has made to attend to herself, and not to be abandoned to negligence or caprice.

Thus, in fpite of the climate of China, where they are naturally led to a fervile obedience, in fpite of the apprehenfions which follow too great an extent of empire, the firft legiflators of this country were obliged to make excellent laws, and the government was frequently obliged to follow them.

MA

CHAP. VII.

Of human Industry.

more proper for their abode.

Ankind by their industry, and by the influence of good laws, have rendered the earth We fee rivers flow where there have been lakes and marshes: this is a benefit which nature has not beftowed; but it is a benefit maintained and fupplied by nature. When the Perfians (") were maiters of Afia, they (4) Polybius, 1. 10. permitted thofe who conveyed a spring to any place, which had not been watered before, to enjoy the benefit for five generations; and as a number of rivulets flowed from mount Taurus, they spared no expence in directing the courfe of their

Dd 3

XVIII.

Book their streams. At this day, without knowing how they came thither, they are found in the fields and gardens.

Chap. 8.

and 9.

Thus, as deftructive nations produce evils more durable than themfelves; the actions of an induftrious people are the fource of bleffings which laft when they are no more.

CHAP. VIII.

The general Relation of Laws.

THE laws have a very great relation to the manner, in which the feveral nations procure their fubfiftence. There should be a code of laws of a much larger extent, for a nation attached to trade and navigation, than for people who are content with cultivating the earth. There fhould be a much greater for the latter, than for those who fubfift by their flocks and herds. There must be a ftill greater for thefe, than for fuch as live by hunting.

TH

CHA P. IX.

Of the Soil of America.

'HE cause of there being fuch a number of savage nations in America, is the fertility of the earth, which spontaneously produces many fruits capable of affording them nourishment. If the women cultivate a spot of land round their cottages, the maiz grows up presently; and hunting and fishing puts the men in a ftate of complete abundance. Befides, black cattle, as cows, buffaloes, &c. thrive there better than carnivorous

1

beafts,