Book XIV.
Chap. 15.guilty; are made with a design to implant in all the people a distrust of each other, and to make every one the inspector, witness, and judge of his neighbour's conduct.
On the contrary, the people of India are mild[1], tender, and compassionate. Hence their legislators repose a great confidence in them. They have established[2] very few punishments; these are not severe, nor are they rigorously executed. They have subjected nephews to their uncles, and orphans to their guardians, as in other countries they are subjected to their fathers; they have regulated the succession by the acknowledged merit of the successor. They seem to think that every individual ought to place an intire confidence in the good nature of his fellow subjects.
They infranchise their slaves without difficulty, they marry them, they treat them as their children[3]: happy climate which gives birth to innocence, and produces a lenity in the laws!
