IV. of fofter harmony? the ancients were therefore Book in the right, when under particular circumstances Chap. 8. they preferred one mode to another in regard to manners. But fome will afk, why fhould mufic 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 (1) that the Thebans, in order to foften the (1) Life of manners of their youth, authorised by law a paffion, which ought to be profcribed by all nations. Pelopidas. BOOK Воок V. Chap. 1. and 2. BOOK V. That the Laws given by the Legiflator ought to be relative to the Principle of Government. Τ CHA P. I. Idea of this Book. HAT the laws of education ought to relative 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. The relation of laws to this principle, ftrengthens the feveral fprings 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 defign is to examine this relation in each government, beginning with the republican ftate, whofe principle is virtue. CHA P. II. What is meant by Virtue in a Political State. VIRTUE in a republic, is a moft fimple thing; it is a love of the republic; it is a fenfation, and not a confequence of acquired knowledge a fenfation, that may be felt by the meanest as well as by the highest perfon in the ftate. When men. the common people adopt good maxims, they adhere to them steadier than those we call gentleIt 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 former. The lefs we are able to fatisfy our private 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. Their rule debars them of all those 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 left them. CHA P. III. What is meant by a love of the Republic in a ALOVE 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 likewife that of frugality. Since every individual ought here to enjoy the fame happiness and the fame advantages, they fhould confequently tafte the fame pleasures and form the fame hopes; which cannot be expected but from a general frugality. The Воок Chap. 3. The love of equality in a democracy, limits ambition to the fole defire, to the fole happiness of doing greater fervices to our country than the reft of our fellow citizens. They cannot all render her equal fervices, but they all ought to ferve her with equal alacrity. At our coming into the world, we contract an immenfe debt to our country, which we can never discharge. Hence diftinctions here arife from the principle of equality, even when it seems to be removed by fignal fervices, or fuperior abilities. The love of frugality limits the defire of having to the study of procuring neceffaries to our family, and fuperfluities to our country. Riches give a power which a citizen cannot use for himself, for then he would be no longer equal. They likewife procure pleasures which he ought not to enjoy, because these would be also repugnant to the equality. Thus well-regulated democracies, by establishing domeftic frugality, made way at the fame time for public expences, as was the cafe at Rome and Athens, when magnificence and profusion arose from the very fund of frugality. And as religion commands us to have pure and unfpotted 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 fenfe and happiness of individuals depend greatly on the mediocrity of their abilities and fortunes. Therefore, as a republic, where the laws have placed many in a middling station, is composed of wife men, it will be wifely governed; as it is compofed of happy men, it will be extremely happy. CHA P. CHA P. IV. In what manner the Love of Equality and Fru TH gality is infpired. V. Chap. 4. HE love of equality and of a frugal eco- Book nomy is greatly excited by equality and frugality themselves, in focieties, where both these virtues are established by law. In monarchies and defpotic governments, no body aims at equality; this does not fo much as enter their thoughts; they all aspire to fuperiority. People of the very loweft condition defire to emerge from their obfcurity, only to lord it over their fellow fubjects. : It is the fame with refpect to frugality. To love it, we must practise and enjoy it. It is not those who are enervated with pleasure, that are fond of a frugal life; were this natural and common, Alcibiades would never have been the admiration of the univerfe. Neither is it those who envy or admire the luxury of the great; people that have, present to their view none but rich men, or men miferable like themselves, deteft their wretched condition, without loving or knowing the real term or point of mifery. A true maxim it is therefore, that in order to love equality and frugality in a republic, these virtues must have been previously established by law. CHA P. |