families who have
united together, as much land as, and in the place in which, they think
proper, and the year after compel them to remove elsewhere. For this
enactment they advance many reasons--lest seduced by long-continued
custom, they may exchange their ardor in the waging of war for
agriculture; lest they may be anxious to acquire extensive estates, and
the more powerful drive the weaker from their possessions; lest they
construct their houses with too great a desire to avoid cold and heat;
lest the desire of wealth spring up, from which cause divisions and
discords arise; and that they may keep the common people in a contented
state of mind, when each sees his own means placed on an equality with
[those of] the most powerful.

It is the greatest glory to the several States to have as wide deserts
as possible around them, their frontiers having been laid waste. They
consider this the real evidence of their prowess, that their neighbors
shall be driven out of their lands and abandon them, and that no one
dare settle near them; at the same time they think that they shall be on
that account the more secure, because they have removed the apprehension
of a sudden incursion. When a State either repels war waged against it
or wages it against another, magistrates are chosen to preside over
that war with such authority that they have power of life and death. In
peace there is no common magistrate, but the chiefs of provinces and
cantons administer justice and determine controversies among their own
people. Robberies which are committed beyond the boundaries of each
State bear no infamy, and they avow that these are committed for the
purpose of disciplining their youth and of preventing sloth. And when
any of their chiefs has said in an assembly that "he will be their
leader; let those who are willing to follow, give in their names," they
who approve of both the enterprise and the man arise and promise their
assistance and are applauded by the people; such of them as have not
followed him are accounted in the number of deserters and traitors, and
confidence in all matters is afterwards refused them.

To injure guests they regard as impious; they defend from wrong those
who have come to them for any purpose whatever, and esteem them
inviolable; to them the houses of all are open and maintenance is freely
supplied.

And there was formerly a time when the Gauls excelled the Germans in
prowess, and waged war on them offens