Book V.
Chap. 14. & 15.eldest son. It is more natural to believe that the whole was an intrigue of those oriental seraglios, where artifice, treachery, and deceit reign in silence, involved in thick obscurity; where an old prince, grown every day more infirm, is the first prisoner of the palace.
After what has been said, one would imagine that human nature should perpetually oppose a despotic government. But notwithstanding the love of liberty, so natural to mankind, notwithstanding their innate detestation of force and violence, most nations are subject to this very government. This is easily accounted for. In order to form a moderate government, it is necessary to combine the several powers, to rule, temper, and set them in motion, to give, as it were, ballast to one in order to enable it to resist another. This is a master-piece of legislation, rarely produced by hazard, and seldom attained by prudence. On the contrary, a despotic government offers itself, as it were, at first fight; it is uniform throughout; and as passions only are requisite to establish it, this is what every capacity may reach.
CHAP. XV.
The same subject continued.
IN warm climates, where despotic power generally prevails, there is an earlier sensibility, as well as an earlier extinction of the passions[1]; the understanding is sooner ripened; they are in less danger of squandering away their fortunes; there is less facility in distinguishing themselves in the world; less communication between young people, who are confined
- ↑ See the book of laws as relative to the nature of the climate.
