Book XIV.
Chap. 2.action of the extremities of the fibres are better performed, the temperature of the humours is greater, the blood moves freer towards the heart, and reciprocally the heart has more power. This superiority of strength must produce a great many effects; for instance, a greater boldness, that is, more courage; a greater sense of superiority, that is, less desire of revenge; a greater opinion of security, that is, more frankness, less suspicion, policy, and cunning. In short this must be productive of very different characters. Put a man in a close warm place, and he will, for the reasons above given, feel a great faintness. If under this circumstance you propose a bold enterprize to him, I believe you will find him very little disposed towards it: his present weakness will throw him into a despondency of soul; he will be afraid of every thing, because he will feel himself capable of nothing. The inhabitants of warm countries are, like old men, timorous; the people in cold countries are, like young men, brave. If we reflect on the late[1] wars, which are more present to our memory, and in which we can better distinguish some flight effects that escape us at a great distance of time; we shall find that the northern people transplanted into southern countries[2], did not perform such great feats as their countrymen, who fighting in their own climate possessed them full vigor and courage.
This strength of the fibres in northern nations is the cause that the coarsest juices are extracted from their aliments. From hence two things result:
