Articles de cette rubrique

• XIX.1 On the subject of this book

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  This subject is vast. In the flurry of thoughts that come to my mind, I shall be more attentive to the order of things than to the things themselves ; I must push things aside right and left, come through and get to the light.

• XIX.2 How necessary it is, for the best laws, that minds be prepared

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  Nothing seemed more unbearable to the Germans than the tribunal of Varus. The one which Justinian set up among the Lazi to try their king’s murderer seemed to them something horrible and barbaric. Mithridates, orating against the Romans, reproaches them above all for the formalities of their (…)

• XIX.3 On tyranny

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  There are two sorts of tyranny : one real, consisting in government violence ; and one of opinion, which is felt when those who govern establish things that offend a nation’s manner of thinking.
  Dio says that Augustus wanted to be called Romulus ; but after learning that the people feared he (…)

• XIX.4 What the general spirit is

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  There are several things that govern men : climate, religion, laws, the government’s maxims, examples of things past, morals, manners, whence a general spirit is formed that results from them.
  To the degree that one of these causes acts with more force in each nation, the others yield to it. (…)

• XIX.5 How careful one must be not to change the general spirit of a nation

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  If there were a nation on earth that had a sociable humor, openness of heart, a joy in life, a taste, an ease in communicating its thoughts ; a lively nation, amiable, playful, sometimes imprudent, often indiscreet, and which besides had courage, generosity, candor, a certain point of honor : it (…)

• XIX.6 That not everything must be corrected

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  Let us be as we are, said a gentleman of a nation that much resembles the one we have just been suggesting. Nature repairs all. She has given us a vivacity capable of offending and prone to make us lack all respect ; this same vivacity is corrected by the refinement it procures us, by inspiring (…)

• XIX.7 On the Athenians and the Lacedæmonians

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  The Athenians, this gentleman continued, were a people who had some similarity to us. They went cheerfully about their business ; they liked a dash of mockery on the rostrum as on the stage. The vivacity they put into their councils carried over into the execution. The character of the (…)

• XIX.8 Effects of a sociable humor

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  The more communicable people are, the more easily they change manners, because each of them is more of a spectacle for another ; the singularities of individuals are more visible. The climate that makes a nation communicable also makes it like change ; and what makes a nation like change also (…)

• XIX.9 On the vanity and arrogance of nations

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  Vanity is as good a resource for a government as pride is a dangerous one. To see this, you only have to imagine, first, the benefits without number that result from vanity : whence luxury, industry, arts, fashion, refinement, and taste ; and second, the infinite harm that arises from the pride (…)

• XIX.10 On the character of the Spaniards and of the Chinese

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  The various characters of nations are incorporate virtues and vices, good and bad qualities. The happy mixtures are those which yield great advantages, and often you would not suspect them ; there are some that do great harm, and these too you would not suspect.
  The good faith of the Spanish (…)