Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/441

Rh was their lawgiver. But they are since fallen to decay; for the Carthaginians becoming their masters, destroyed every thing proper for the nourishment of man, and forbad the cultivation of the lands on pain of death." Sardinia was not recovered in the time of Aristotle, nor is it to this day.

The most temperate parts of Persia, Turky, Muscovy, and Poland, have not been able to recover perfectly from the devaluations of the Tartars.

HE barrenness of the earth renders men industrious, sober, inured to hardship, courageous and fit for war: they are obliged to procure by labour what the earth refuses to bestow spontaneously. The fertility of a country gives ease, effeminacy, and a certain fondness for the preservation of life. It has been remarked that the German troops raised in those places where the peasants are rich, as for instance, in Saxony, are not so good as the others. Military laws may provide against this inconvenience by a more severe discipline.

HE people of the ides have a higher relish for liberty than those of the continent. Rh