Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/437

Rh The power in Asia ought to be always despotic: for if their slavery was not severe, they would soon make a division, inconsistent with the nature of the country.

In Europe the natural division forms many nations of a moderate extent, in which the government of the laws is not incompatible with the maintenance of the state: on the contrary, it is so favourable to it, that without this the state would fall into decay, and become inferior to all others.

It is this which has formed a genius for liberty, that renders every part extremely difficult to be subdued and subjected to a foreign power, otherwise than by the laws and the advantage of commerce.

On the contrary, there reigns in Asia a servile spirit, which they have never been able to shake off; and it is impossible to find, in all the histories of this country, a single passage which discovers a free soul: we shall never see any thing there but the heroism of slavery.

HIS is what I had to say of Asia and Europe. Africa is in a climate like that of the south of Asia, and is in the same servitude. America being destroyed and lately re-peopled by the nations of Europe and Africa, can now scarcely shew its true genius; but what we know of its ancient history is very conformable to our principles. Rh