ould scarce be imagined.

The Samnites were descended from the Lacedaemonians; and Plato,
whose institutes are only an improvement of those of Lycurgus,
enacted nearly the same law.

The relation of the foregoing chapter to the subject indicated in the
title of the book, is sufficiently obscure and remote, for a work like
this purporting to be philosophical. What relation exists, seems to be
found in the fact that the Samnite custom described tends to produce
that popular virtue by which republics flourish. But the information, at
all events, is curious and interesting.

The following paragraphs, taken from the second chapter of Book XIV.,
contain in germ nearly the whole of the philosophy underlying M. Taine's
essays on the history of literature:--

OF THE DIFFERENCE OF MEN IN DIFFERENT CLIMATES.

A cold air constringes the extremities of the external fibres of
the body; this increases their elasticity, and favors the return of
the blood from the extreme parts to the heart. It contracts those
very fibres; consequently it increases also their force. On the
contrary, a warm air relaxes and lengthens the extremes of the
fibres; of course it diminishes their force and elasticity.

People are therefore more vigorous in cold climates. Here the
action of the heart and the reaction of the extremities of the
fibres are better performed, the temperature of the humors is
greater, the blood moves freer towards the heart, and reciprocally
the heart has more power. This superiority of strength must produce
various effects; for instance, a greater boldness,--that is, more
courage; a greater sense of superiority,--that is, less desire of
revenge; a greater opinion of security,--that is, more frankness,
less suspicion, policy and cunning. In short, this must be
productive of very different tempers. Put a man into a close, warm
place, and, for the reasons above given, he will feel a great
faintness. If under this circumstance you propose a bold enterprise
to him, I believe you will find him very little disposed towards
it; his present weakness will throw him into a despondency; he will
be afraid of every thing, being in a state of total incapacity. The
inhabitants of warm countries are, like old men, timorous; the
people in cold countries are, like young men, brave.

In the following extract, from