human Body, nor any Principle of Mechanism. Good and Evil, relatively to us, is not fimply ideal, it must be fenfible, and to a great Degree; as it is decided by the general Sentiment, declaring itself by the Majority, which foon or late ever turn the Scale: And here may further be added, that should the Majority fall fick, even then the Matter must be referred to them, endeavouring infenfibly to reclaim them. without any abrupt Oppofition. It feldom happens that any Good is done by open Force against the Bulk of a Nation: And no fooner is a Law found to disgust the People, though only for want of entering into its Reasonableness and Advantage, but they fhould be humoured; and Lenity and Time never fail to gain their Approbation, and Readiness to put it in Execution, if within their Abilities.

IF, in a Machine, only fome of the leffer Parts be faulty, they may, and should be immediately taken out, and their Places fupplied with fuch as are new, found, and complete: But if the Defect has reached the main Parts, the chief Springs, the Machine must be entirely taken to Pieces, and made up anew, without fparing what was good in it, as now M

of

of no Use, and alfo near being inevitably fpoiled. If fuch an Extremity would be improper, all that can be done is to temporize, or at leaft not haften its total Ruin and final Deftruction, as it too often happens by an unseasonable Rigour: Towards a few Individuals, Rigour may be requifite and fuccefsful, to prevent a Depravation from becoming general; but when once it has got the upper Hand, Mildnefs and Addrefs are the only Refources. Thefe are the Documents of the Spirit of Laws.

III. As Men change, Laws fhould change. In Sickness we alter our Diet, and different Sickneffes require different Diets: Different Inclinations, Taftes, and Habits, are infenfibly contracted; and this calls for a Change in the Rule and Method of treating Men, in order to restore them to fome Degree of Health, if not to a fettled Perfection. Then the Neceffity or Fitness of the firft Laws cease; they become useless, and are fuperfeded by others, which must likewife alter with the Alterations in Men: But all thefe fucceffive Changes can have no other End than their Happiness; and 'tis on this very Account that they change.

Thus

Thus is the Change of Laws as natural, as the Change of Food in different Ages, Climates, and Diseases; and that of Cloathing in different Seafons, Countries, and Fashions. The former grow old, and become troublefome and difagreeable, and fometimes dangerous; yet there is no doing without Aliment and Apparel, and the Change of them is only for the Prefervation and Comfort of our Lives.

PA

CHAP III.

ARTICULAR Regulations, Ordinances, and Statutes, are not to be confounded with the Law. This Miftake is very common, and it is that which caufes the Appearance of perpetual Contradictions in Laws, and of their Inutility when grown old. Properly speaking, real Law never changes; and amidst the fucceffive Alterations of the Body, the Spirit of Laws is ever the fame. This Spirit cannot for a fingle Moment defift from interesting itself in the general Happiness, and from procuring it by all imaginable Means, and in all Junctures. It is like the Soul in the Body

confifting of feveral Members, all appointed for useful Functions; they may sometimes appear to counteract each other, yet it is this Renitency which gives Life and Vigour to the whole Machine.

In reality, no particular Law ever could be called intrinfically good; it is always a Conftraint, a Bridle, and a Burden fo much the more onerous and difgraceful, as implying a Weakness or Depravity in human Nature. Thus Bleeding and Medicaments are Goods only to the Sick; to the Healthy they are to be confidered as Evils: Yet the Use of them is highly neceffary, as without them Sickness would foon get the Mastery; and thus they are called Good, being neceffary towards producing good Effects. On the contrary, the Spirit of Laws is of a perfect and intrinsical Goodness; and all particular Laws are no farther good, than as animated by it.

THIS Truth is not a Spunge for all the Difficulties which may be brought against the Law of Mofes; but also, for the infinite Difficul be brought against all the Laws Why does M. de Montefquiou

ties which may

in the World.

talk

talk of this Spunge only for Mofes's Law? Without a thorough Knowledge of human Nature, there will be Difficulties every where ;

and with a juft Idea of the Deity, you will find none in the Laws of Mofes, especially if you confider the Jewish People in their Origin, the Age of the World when they received their Laws, the Country from which they came, and that in which they were going to settle.

THE moft fimple and most general Law is ever the best; it is the most genuine Reprefentative of its Spirit. There is nothing like loving God with all our Heart and Strength, our Neighbour as ourselves, and avoiding wicked Men, but still without refusing them any neceffary Relief. This is the Substance of the evangelical Law; to this are reducible all its other particular Precepts. But foreseeing frequent Breaches, both cafual and prepense, from the natural Weakness and Depravation of Nature; it offers to Believers a fupreme Mediator, an only Victim, atoning for all those Breaches, reconciling Tranfgreffors, and furnishing them with the fufficient Helps of Faith, Hope, and Charity, to terminate, at least at Death, all their Tranfgreffions, Weak

neffes,