CHA P. IX. Of the Vanity and Pride of Nations. VANITY is as advantageous to a government aș pride is dangerous. To be convinced of this, we need only reprefent, on the one hand, the numberless benefits which refult from vanity; from thence arifes luxury, induftry, arts, fashions, politenefs, tafte: And, on the other, the infinite evils which fpring from the pride of certain nations, laziness, poverty and univerfal neglect, the deftruction of the nations which have accidentally fallen into their hands, as well as their own. Lazinefs is the effect of pride; labor a confequence of vanity: The pride of a Spaniard leads him to refufe labor; the vanity of a Frenchman to know how to work better than others. All lazy nations are grave; for those who do not labor, regard themselves as the fovereigns of those who do. If we fearch amongst all nations, we fhall find, that, for the most part, gravity, pride and indolence go hand in hand. The people of Achimt are proud and lazy; those who have no flaves hire one, if it be only to carry a quart of rice a hundred paces; they would be difhonored if they carried it themselves. In many places people let their nails grow, that all may fee they do not work. Women in the Indiest believe it fhameful for them to learn to read: This is, they fay, the bufinefs of the flaves," who fing their spiritual fongs in the temples of their pas gods. In one tribe they do not fpin; in another they make nothing but baskets and mats; they are not even to pound rice; and in others they must not go to fetch water. Thefe * The people who follow the Khan Malacamber, of those of Carnataca and Coromandel, are proud and indolent; they confume little, because they are milerably poor; while the fubjects of the Mogul, and the people of Indoftan, employ themfelves, and enjoy the conveniences of life like the Europeans. Collection of voyages for the establishment of an India company, vol. 1. page 54. Edifying letters, 12th collect. p. 80. See Dampier, vol. ii. These rules are established by pride, and the fame paffion makes them followed, СНА Р. Х. Of the Characters of the Spaniards and Chinefe. THE characteristics of the feveral nations are formed of virtues and vices, of good and bad qualities. From the happy mixture of thefe, great advantages result, and frequently where it would be least expected; there are others from whence great evils arife, evils which one would not suspect. The Spaniards have been in all ages famous for their honesty. Juftin* mentions their fidelity in keeping whatever was entrusted to their care; they have frequently fuffered death rather than reveal a fecret. They have ftill the fame fidelity for which they were formerly diftinguifhed. All the nations who trade to Cadiz, truft their for tunes to the Spaniards, and have never yet repented it. But this admirable quality, joined to their indolence, forms a mixture, from whence fuch effects refult as to them are the moft pernicious. The people of Europe carry on in their very fight all the commerce of their monarchy. The character of the Chinese is formed of another mixture, directly oppofite to that of the Spaniards. The precariousness of their fubfiftence,† infpires them with a prodigious activity, and fuch an exceffive defire of gain, that no trading nation can confide in them. This acknowledged infidelity has fecured them the poffeffion of the trade to Japan. No European merchant has ever dared to undertake it in their name, how eafy foever it might be for them to do it from their maritime provinces in the north, СНАР. *Lib: 43. CHA P. XI. A Reflection. I HAVE faid nothing here with a view to lessen that infinite diftance, which there must ever be between virtue and vice. God forbid, that I fhould be guilty of fuch an attempt! I would only make my readers comprehend that all political vices are not moral vices, and that all moral are not political vices; and that those who make laws which fhock the general spirit of a nation, ought not to be ignorant of this. CHA P. XII. Of Cuftoms and Manners in a Defpotic State. IT is a capital maxim, that the manners and cuf toms of a defpotic empire ought never to be changed; for nothing would more fpeedily produce a revolution. The reafon is, that in thefe ftates there are no laws, that is, none that can be properly called fo, there are only manners and cuftoms ; and if you overturn these, you overturn all. Laws are established, manners are infpired; these proceed from a general spirit, those from a particular inftitution: Now, it is as dangerous, nay more fo, to overturn the general spirit, as to change a particular inftitution. There is lefs communication in a country where each, either as fuperior or inferior, exercises or fuffers an arbitrary power, than there is in those where liberty reigns in every ftation. They do not therefore fo often change their manners and behavior. Fixed and established cuftomis have a near refemblance to laws. Thus it is here neceffary that a prince or a legiflator fhould lefs oppose the manners and cuftoms of the people, than in any other country upon earth. Their women are commonly confined, and have no influence in fociety. In other countries where they live with men, their defire of pleafing, and the defire men alfo have of giving them pleafure, produce a continual change of cuftoms. The two fexes fpoil each other, they both lose their diftinctive and effential quality; what was naturally fixed becomes quite unfettled, and their customs and behavior change every day. CHA P. XIII. Of the Cuftoms of the Chinese. BUT China is the place where the customs of the country can never be changed. Befides their women being abfolutely feparated from the men, their customs like their morals, are taught in the fchools. A man of* letters may be known by his easy addrefs. Thefe things being once taught by precept, and inculcated by grave doctors, become fixed like the principles of morality, and are never changed. CHA P. XIV. What are the natural Means of changing the Manners and the Customs of a Nation. WE have faid that the laws were the particular and precife inftitutions of a legiflator, and manners and cuftoms the inftitutions of a nation in general. From hence it follows, that when thefe manners and customs are to be changed, it ought not to be done by laws; this would have too much the air of tyranny: It would be better to change them by introducing other manners and other cuf toms. Thus when a prince would make great alterations in his kingdom, he should reform by laws what is eftablished by laws, and change by cuftoms what is eftablifhed by cuf * Du Halde. toms; toms; for it is very bad policy to change by laws, what ought to be changed by customs. The law which obliged the Mufcovites to cut off their beards, and to fhorten their clothes, and the rigor with which Peter I made them crop, even to their knees, the long cloaks of those who entered into the cities, were inftances of tyranny. There are means that may be made ufe of to prevent crimes, these are punishments: There are thofe for changing our customs, these are examples. The facility and eafe with which this nation has been polifhed, plainly fhows that this prince had a worse opinion of his people than they deferved, and that they were not brutes, though he was pleafed to call them fo. The violent measures which he employed were needlefs, he would have attained his end as well by milder methods. He himself experienced the uneafiness of bringing about thefe alterations. The women were shut up, and in fome fort flaves; he called them to court; he fent them filks and stuffs, and made them drefs like the German ladies. This fex immediately relished a manner of life which for greatly flattered their tafte, their vanity and their paffions, and by their means it was relished by the men. What rendered the change the more eafy, was, their manners being at that time foreign to the climate; and their having been introduced among them by conqueft, and by a mixture of nations. Peter I, in giving the manners and cuftoms of Europe to an European nation, found a facility which he did not himself expect. The empire of the climate is the first, the most powerful of all empires. He had then no occafion for laws to change the manners and customs of his country; it would have been fufficient to have introduced other manners and other customs. Nations are in general very tenacious of their customs; to take them away by violence, is to render them unhappy: We fhould not therefore change them, but engage the people to make the change themselves. All punishment which is not derived from neceffity, is tyrannical. The law is not a mere act of power; things in their own nature indifferent are not within its province. CHAP. |