Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/109

Rh of softer harmony? The ancients were therefore in the right, when under particular circumstances they preferred one mode to another in regard to manners.

But some will ask, why should music be pitched upon preferable to any other entertainment? It is because of all sensible pleasures, there is none that lefs corrupts the soul. We blush to read in Plutarch that the Thebans, in order to soften the manners of their youth, authorised by law a passion, that ought to be proscribed by all nations. Rh