Book XIV.
Chap. 3, & 4.more it behoves them to receive proper impressions, 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 almost without laws: and yet by the help of the good sense annexed to the gross fibres of those climates, they made an admirable stand against the power of the Roman empire, till that memorable period in which they quitted their woods to subvert it.
CHAP. IV.
Cause of the Immutability of Religion, Manners, Customs, and Laws, in the Eastern Countries.
IF that delicacy of organs which renders the eastern people so susceptible of every impression, is accompanied likewise with a sort of laziness of mind naturally connected with that of the body, by means of which they grow incapable of any action or effort: is easy to comprehend, that when once the soul has received an impression she cannot change it. This is the reason, that the laws, manners[1] and customs, even those which seem quite indifferent, such as their manner of dress, are the same to this very day in eastern countries as they were a thousand years ago.
- ↑ We find by a fragment of Nicolaus Damascenus, collected by Constantine Porphyrog that it was an ancient custom in the East to send to strangle a governor who had given any displeasure; it was in the time of the Medes.
