Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/373

Rh slavery is more supportable than the force and vigor of mind necessary for human action.

HE Indians are naturally a cowardly people; even the children of the Europeans born in the Indies lose the courage peculiar to their own climate. But how shall we reconcile this with their cruel actions, with their customs, and penances so full of barbarity? The men voluntarily undergo the greatest hardships; the women burn themselves: here we find a very odd compound of fortitude and weakness.

Nature having framed those people of a texture so weak as renders them timid, has formed them at the same time of an imagination so lively, that every object makes the strongest impression upon them. That delicacy of organs which renders them apprehensive of death, contributes likewise to make them dread a thousand things more than death: the very same sensibility makes them fly, and dare all dangers.

As a good education is more necessary to children than to those who are arrived to a maturity of understanding, so the inhabitants of those climates have much greater need than our people of a wise legislator. The greater their sensibility, the Rh