... On a good soil, if _you are short_ of inhabitants, give
all your attention to agriculture, which multiplies men, and
_banish_ the arts, which only serve to depopulate the country....
Pay attention to extensive and convenient coasts. _Cover the sea_
with vessels, and you will have a brilliant and short existence. If
your seas wash only inaccessible rocks, let the people _be
barbarous_, and eat fish; they will live more quietly, perhaps
better, and, most certainly, more happily. In short, besides those
maxims which are common to all, every people has its own particular
circumstances, which demand a legislation peculiar to itself.
"It was thus that the Hebrews formerly, and the Arabs more
recently, had religion for their principal object; that of the
Athenians was literature; that of Carthage and Tyre, commerce; of
Rhodes, naval affairs; of Sparta, war; and of Rome, virtue. The
author of the 'Spirit of Laws' has shown the art _by which the
legislator should frame his institutions towards each of these
objects_.... But if the legislator, mistaking his object, should
take up a principle different from that which arises from the
nature of things; if one should tend to slavery, and the other to
liberty; if one to wealth, and the other to population; one to
peace, and the other to conquests; the laws will insensibly become
enfeebled, the Constitution will be impaired, and the State will be
subject to incessant agitations until it is destroyed, or becomes
changed, and invincible Nature regains her empire.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220