Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/473

Rh

HE more communicative a people are, the more easily they change their habits, because each is in a greater degree a spectacle to the other; and the singularities of individuals are better seen. The climate which makes one nation delight in being communicative, makes it also delight in change; and that which makes it delight in change, forms its taste.

The society of women of spoils the manners, and forms the taste; the desire of giving greater pleasure than others, establishes the ornaments of dress; and the desire of pleasing others more than ourselves establishes fashions. The mode is a subject of importance: by giving a trifling turn of mind, it continually encreases the branches of its commerce.

ANITY is as advantageous to a government, as pride is dangerous. To be convinced of this, we need only represent on the one hand, the numberless benefits which result from vanity; from thence arises luxury, industry, arts, fashions, politeness, taste: and on the other, the infinite evils which spring from the pride of certain nations, laziness, poverty, a universal neglect, the destruction of the nations which have accidentally fallen into their hands, as well as of their Rh