BOOK XIX.
Of Laws in Relation to the Principles which form the general Spirit, the Morals and Customs of a Nation.
CHAP. I.
Of the Subject of this Book.
Book XIX.
Chap. 1, & 2.THIS subject is of a great extent. In that crowd of ideas which present themselves to my mind, I shall be more attentive to the order of things, than to the things themselves. I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may search into and discover the truth.
CHAP. II.
That it is necessary People's Minds should be prepared for the Reception of the best Laws.
NOTHING could appear more insupportable to the Germans[1] than the tribunal of Varus. That which Justinian[2] erected amongst the Lazi, to proceed against the murderers of their king, appeared to them as an affair the most horrid and and barbarous. Mithridates[3] haranguing against the Romans reproached them more particu-
