Those people have therefore, large bodies and little vivac ity.

In

The nerves that terminate from all parts in the cutis, from each a bundle of nerves; generally speaking, the whole nerve is not moved, but a very minute part. warm climates where the cutis is relaxed, the ends of the nerves are opened, and exposed to the smallest action of the weakest objects. In cold countries the cutis is conftringed, and the papillæ compreffed; the miliary glands are in fome measure paralytic; and the sensation 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 fheep's tongue, where to the naked eye it feems covered with papillæ. On thefe papillæ, I have difcerned, through a microscope, fmall hairs or a kind of down; Between the papillæ were pyramids shaped towards the ends like pincers. Very likely thefe pyramids are the principal organ of tafte.

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 the papillæ were funk into their theath. I examined the outermost part with the microscope, and I perceived no pyramids. In proportion as the froft went off, the papilla feemed to the naked eye to rise, and with the microscope the miliary glands began to appear.

This obfervation confirms what I have been saying, that in cold countries the nervous glands are lefs fpread; 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 degrees of fenfibility. I have feen the operas of England and of Italy; they are the fame pieces and the fame performers; and yet the fame mufic produces fuch different effects on the two na

3

tions,

tions, one is fo cold and indifferent, and the other fo tranfported, that it seems almost 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 should 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 moved by whatever has a relation to the union of the two 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, renders itfelf agreeable by things that have at firft the appearance of love, though not the reality. In warmer climates love is liked for its own fake, it is the only cause of happiness, it is life itself.

In fouthern countries a delicate, weak, but fenfible machine, refigns itfelf either to a love which rifes and is inceffantly laid in a feraglio; or to love which leaves women in a greater independence, and is confequently expofed to a thousand inquietudes. In northern climates a strong but heavy machine, finds a pleafure in whatever is apt to throw the fpirits into motion, fuch as hunting, travelling, war. and wine. In northern countries, we meet with a people who have few vices, many virtues, a great fhare of franknefs and fincerity. If we draw near the fouth, we fancy ourfelves removed from all morality; the strongest paffions multiply all manner of crimes, every one endeavoring to take what advantage he can over his neighbor, in order to encourage thofe paffions. In temperate climates we find the inhabitants inconftant in their manners, in their very vices, and in their virtues: The climate has not a quality 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 the faintnefs

is communicated to the mind: There is no curiofity, no noble enterprise, no generous fentiment; the inclinations are all paffive; indolence conftitutes the utmost happiness; fcarcely any punishment is fo fevere as the action of the foul, and flavery is more fupportable than the force and vigor of mind neceffary for human action.

THE Indians are naturally a cowardly people; even the childrent of the Europeans born in the Indies lofe the courage peculiar to their own climate. But how fhall we reconcile this with their cruel actions, with their customs, and penances fo full of barbarity? The men voluntarily undergo the greatest hardships; the women burn themselves: Here we find a very odd compound of forti tude and weakness,

Nature having framed those people of a texture so weak as renders them timid, 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 makes them fly, and dare all dangers.

As a good education is more necessary to children, than to those who are arrived to a maturity of understanding, fo the inhabitants of those climates have much greater need than our people of a wife legiflator. The greater their fenfibility, the more it behoves them to receive proper impreffions,

4

* 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 Mo gul, tom. 1. p. 282.

[Book XIV. preffions, to imbibe no prejudices, and to let themselves be directed by reason.

At the time of the Romans, the inhabitants of the north of Europe lived without art, education, and almoft without laws And yet by the help of the good fenfe annexed to the grofs fibres of those climates, they made an admira ble ftand against the power of the Roman empire, till that memorable period in which they quitted their woods to fubvert it.

CHA P. IV.

Caufe of the Immutability of Religion, Manners, Cuftoms and Laws, in eastern Countries.

IF that delicacy of organs which renders the eastern people fo fufceptible of every impreffion, is accom. panied likewife with a fort of laziness of mind naturally connected with that of the body, by means of which they grow incapable of any action or effort; it is eafy to com prehend, that when once the foul has received an impref fion, fhe cannot change it. This is the reafon, that the laws, manners and cuftoms, even thofe which feem quite indifferent, fuch as their manner of dress, are the fame to this very day in eaftern countries, as they were a thousand years ago.

CHAP. V.

That thofe are bad Legiflators who favor the Vices of the Climate, and good Legiflators who oppose thofe Vices.

THE Indians believe that repofe and nonexistence are the foundation of all things, and the end in which they

terminate.

We find by a fragment of Nicholaus Damafcenus, collected by Conftan. tine Porphyrog. that it was an ancient custom in the eaft to fend to ftrangle a governor who had given any displeasure; it was in the time of Medes.

terminate. They confider therefore the ftate of entire inaction as the most perfect of all ftates, and the object of their defires. They give to the Supreme Being* the title of Immoveable. The inhabitants of Siam believe that their utmost happinesst confifts in not being obliged to animate a machine, or to give motion to a body.

In those countries where the excess of heat enervates and oppreffes the body, reft is fo delicious, and motion fo painful, that this fyftem of metaphyfics feems natural; and Foet the legiflator of the Indies followed what he himself felt when he placed mankind in a ftate extremely paffive : But his doctrine arifing from the lazinefs of the climate, favored it also in its turn; which has been the source of an infinite deal of mifchief,

The legiflators of China had more fenfe, when confidering men not in the peaceful ftate which they are to enjoy hereafter, but in the fituation proper for difcharging the feveral duties of life, they made their religion, philofophy and laws all practical. The more the phyfical caufes incline mankind to inaction, the more the moral caufes fhould eftrange them from it.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Cultivation of Lands in warm Climates.

THE cultivation of lands is the principal labor of man. The more the climate inclines them to fhun this labor, the more their religion and laws ought to excite them to it. Thus the Indian laws, which give the lands to the prince, and destroy the fpirit of property among the fubjects, increase the bad effects of the climate, that is, their natural laziness. CHAP.

* Panamanad. See Kircher.

+ La Loubere, relation of Siam, p. 446.

"We have eyes

Foe endeavored to reduce the heart to a mere vacuum : and ears, but perfection confifts in neither feeing nor hearing; a mouth, hands, &c. but perfection requires that thefe members fhould be inactive." This is taken from the dialogue of a Chinese philofopher, quoted by Father du Halde, tom. 3.