CHAP. VII.

Of Monachifm.

THE very fame mischiefs results from monachism; it had its rife in the warm countries of the east, where they are lefs inclined to action than to fpeculation. In Afia the number of dervises or monks feems to increase together with the heat of the climate. The Indies, where the heat is exceffive, are full of them; and the fame difference is found in Europe.

In order to furmount the lazinefs of the climate, the laws ought to endeavor to remove all means of fubfifting without labor : But in the fouthern parts of Europe they act quite the reverse; to those who want to live in a state of indolence they afford retreats the most proper for a fpeculative life, and endow them with immenfe revenues, These men, who live in the midst of a plenty which they know not how to enjoy, are in the right to give their fuperfluities away to the common people. The poor are bereft of property; and thefe men indemnify them by supporting them in idlenefs, fo as to make them even grow fond of their misery.

CHAP. VIII.

An excellent Custom of China.

THE hiftorical relations* of China mention a ceremonyt of opening the grounds, which the emperor performs

Father du Halde's hiftory of China, tom. 2. p. 72.

+ Several of the kings of India do the fame. Relation of the kingdom of Siz am by La Loubere, p. 69.

forms every year. The defign of this public and folemn act is to excite the people to tillage.

Farther, the emperor is informed every year of the hufbandman who has diftinguished himself most in his profeffion; and he makes him a mandarin of the eighth order.

Among the ancient Perfians the kings quitted their grandeur and pomp on the eighth of the month called Chorrem ruz to eat with the husbandmen. - These inftitutions were admirably well calculated for the encouragement of agriculture.

CHAP. IX.

Means of encouraging Industry.

WE fhall fhow in the nineteenth book that lazy nations are generally proud. Now, the effect might well be turned against the caufe, and lazinefs be destroyed by pride. In the fouth of Europe, where people have fuch a high notion of the point of honor, it would be right to give prizes to hufbandmen who had cultivated beft the lands, or to artifts who had made the greatest improvements in their feveral profeffions, This practice has fucceeded in our days in Ireland, where it has established one of the moft confiderable linen manufactures in Europe.

CHAP. X.

Of the Laws relative to the Sobriety of the People.

IN warm countries the aqueous part of the blood lofes itself greatly by perfpiration ; it must therefore be fupplied

* Venty, the third emperor of the third dynasty, tilled the lands himself, and made the emprefs and his wives employ their time in the filk works in his palace. Hiftory of China.

+ Hyde, religion of the Perfians.

Monfieur Bernier travelling from Lahor to Cachemir, wrote thus: "My body is a fieve; fcarce have I fwallowed a pint of water, but I fee it tranfude like dew out of all my limbs, even to my fingers ends. I drink ten pints a day, and it does me no manner of harm." Bernier's Travela, tom. 3.

fupplied by a like liquid. Water is there of admirable use; strong liquors would coagulate the globules* of blood that remain after the tranfuding of the aqueous humor.

In cold countries the aqueous part of the blood is very little evacuated by perfpiration. They may therefore make ufe of fpiritous liquors, without danger of coagulating the blood. They are full of humors; confequently strong liquors which give a motion to the blood, are proper for thofe countries.

The law of Mahomet which prohibits the drinking of wine, is therefore a law fitted to the climate of Arabia: And indeed, before Mahomet's time, water was the common drink of the Arabs. The lawt which forbade the Carthaginians to drink wine, was alfo a law of the climate; in fact, the climate of thofe two countries is pretty near the fame.

Such a law would be improper for cold countries, where the climate feems to force them to a kind of national drunkenness, very different from perfonal intemperance. Drunkenness predominates over all the world, in proportion to the coldness and humidity of the climate. Go from the equator to our pole, and you will find drunkennefs increafing together with the degree of latitude. Go from the fame equator to the oppofite pole, and you will find drunkenness travelling fouth, as on this fide it travels towards the north.

It is very natural that where wine is contrary to the cli mate, and confequently to health, the excess of it fhould be more feverely punished, than in countries where drunkenness produces very few bad effects to the perfon, fewer to the fociety, and where it does not make people mad, but only stupid and heavy. Hence laws which punished a drunken man both for the fault he committed, and for his drunkenness,

In the blood there are red globules, fibrous parts, white globules, and water in which the whole fwims.

+ Plato, book 2. of laws; Ariftotle of the care of domestic affairs; Eufabius' evangelical preparation, book 12. c. 17.

This is feen in the Hottentots, and the inhabitants of the most southern part of Chili.

As Pittacus did, according to Ariftotle, polit, lib. 1. c. 3. He lived in a climate where drunkenness is not a national vice.

drunkenness, were applicable only to a perfonal, and not to a national ebriety. A German drinks through custom, and a Spaniard by choice.

In warm countries the relaxing of the fibres produces a great evacuation of the liquids, but the folid parts are less tranfpired. The fibres which act but weakly, and have very little elafticity, are not much worn; a fmall quantity of nutricious juice is fufficient to repair them; for which reason they eat very little.

1

It is the difference of wants in different climates, that firft formed a difference in the manner of living, and this difference of living gave rife to that of laws. Where people are very communicative, there must be particular laws; and others among people where there is but little commu nication.

CHA P. XI.

Of the Laws relative to the Distempers of the Climater

HERODOTUS* informs us, that the Jewish laws concerning the leprofy, were borrowed from the prac tice of the Egyptians. In fact, the fame diftemper required the fame remedies. The Greeks and the primitive Romans were firangers to thefe laws, as well as to the dif ease. The climate of Egypt and Palestine rendered them neceffary; and the facility with which this disease is fpread, is fufficient to make us fenfible of the wisdom and fagacity of thofe laws.

Even we ourfelves have felt the effects of them. The crufades had brought the leprofy amongst us; but the wife regulations made at that time hindered it from infecting the mass of the people.

We find by the law of thet Lombards that this disease was fpread in Italy before the crufades, and merited the attention of the legiflators. Rotharis ordained that a leper fhould be expelled from his houfe, and banished to a particular place, that he fhould be incapable of difpofing of his property; because, from the very moment he had been driven

* Book 2.

+ Book 2, tit, 2. § 3. and tit, 18. § 1.

driven from home, he was reckoned dead in the eye of the law. In order to prevent all communication with lepers, they were rendered incapable of civil acts.

I am apt to think that this disease was brought into Italy by the conquefts of the Greek emperors, in whofe armies there might be fome foldiers from Palestine or Egypt. Be that as it may, the progrefs of it was ftopped till the time of the crufades.

It is related, that Pompey's foldiers, returning from Syria, brought a diftemper home with them not unlike the leprofy. We have no account of any regulation made at that time; but it is highly probable that fome regulation was made, fince the diftemper was ftopped till the time of the Lombards.

It is now two centuries fince a disease, unknown to our ancestors, was first transplanted from the new world to ours, and came to attack human nature even in the very fource of life and pleasure. Moft of the principal families in the fouth of Europe were feen to perish by a distemper, that was grown too common to be ignominious, and was confidered in no other light, than in that of its being fatal. It was the thirft of gold that propagated this disease; the Europeans went continually to America, and always brought back a new leaven of it.

As it is the bufinefs of legiflators to watch over the health of the citizens, it would have been a wife part in them to have flopped this communication by laws made on the plan of thofe of Mofes.

The plague is a disease whose infectious progrefs is much more rapid. Egypt is its principal feat, from whence it fpreads over the whole univerfe. Moft countries in Europe have made exceeding good regulations to prevent this infection, and in our times an admirable method has been contrived to flop it; this is by forming a line of troops round the infected country, which cuts off all manner of commu nication.

*

The Turks, who have no regulations in this respect, fee the Chriftians efcape this infection in the fame town, and none but themfelves perifh; they buy the clothes of the infected, wear them, and go on their old way as if nothing had happened. The doctrine of a rigid fate, which directs

* Ricaut on the Ottoman empire, p. 284.

their