BOOK XVIII.
Of Laws in the Relation they bear to the Nature of the Soil.
CHAP. I.
How the Nature of the Soil has an Influence on the Laws.
Book XVIII.
Chap. 1. THE goodness of the land, in any country, naturally establishes subjection and dependance. The husbandmen who compose the principal part of the people, are not very jealous of their liberty; they are too busy and too intent on their own private affairs. A country which overflows with wealth, is afraid of pillage, afraid of an army. "Who is there that forms this goodly party? said Cicero to Atticus[1], are they the men of commerce and of husbandry? Let us not imagine that these are averse to monarchy, these to whom all governments are equal, as soon as they bestow tranquillity."
Thus monarchy is more frequently found in fruitful countries, and a republican government in those which are not so; and this is sometimes a sufficient compensation for the inconveniences they suffer by the sterility of the land.
The barrenness of the Attic soil, established there a popular government; and the fertility of that of Lacedæmonia an aristocratical form of government. For in those times, Greece was averse to the government of a single person; and aristocracy had the nearest resemblance to that government.
- ↑ Lib. 17.
