We have just seen that the laws of education must be relative to the principle of each government. The same applies to laws which the legislator makes for the whole society. This relationship of the laws to that principle primes all the government’s resources, and that principle in turn receives (…)
Virtue in a republic is a very simple thing : it is love of the republic ; it is a sentiment, and not a series of things that are known ; the last man in the state can have this sentiment like the first. Once the common people have good maxims, they hold to them longer than what are called solid (…)
Love of the republic in a democracy is love of the democracy ; love of democracy is love of equality.
Love of democracy is in addition the love of frugality. As everyone is supposed to have the same prosperity and the same advantages, they will enjoy the same pleasures and harbor the same (…)
Love of equality and of frugality are highly stimulated by equality and frugality themselves when you live in a society where the laws have established both.
In monarchies and despotic states, no one aspires to equality ; it does not even come to mind : everyone strives for superiority. People (…)
Some ancient legislators like Lycurgus and Romulus divided up lands equally. That could occur only at the founding of a new republic, or else when the old one was so corrupt, and people’s minds were in such a disposition, that the poor thought themselves obliged to seek, and the rich obliged to (…)
It is not sufficient in a good democracy for portions of land to be equal ; they must be small, as among the Romans. “God forbid,” Curius would say to his soldiers, “that a citizen should deem very small a piece of land sufficient to feed a man.”
As equality of fortunes sustains frugality, (…)
An equal division of land cannot be achieved in all democracies. There are circumstances where such an arrangement would be impracticable, dangerous, and even might be counter to the constitution. It is not always necessary to take extreme paths. If it is seen in a democracy that such a (…)
If, in the aristocracy, the people are virtuous, they will enjoy something like the well-being of the popular state, and the state will become powerful. But as it is rare for there to be much virtue where men’s fortunes are so unequal, the laws must tend to provide as much spirit of moderation (…)
Honor being the principle of this government, the laws must relate to it.
They must contribute to maintaining the nobility, the honor of which is, so to speak, the child and the father.
They must make it hereditary, not to serve as the boundary between the power of the prince and the (…)
Monarchical government has a big advantage over republican government : business being conducted by one man alone, there is more diligence in the execution. But as this diligence could degenerate into rapidity, the laws will introduce a certain slowness. They must not only favor the nature of (…)
Montesquieu
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