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CHAP. X.: Of the Laws relative to the Sobriety of the People. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws [1748]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 1.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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CHAP. X.

Of the Laws relative to the Sobriety of the People.

IN warm countries, the aqueous part of the blood loses itself greatly by perspiration ; it must, therefore, be supplied by a like liquid. Water is there of admirable use; strong liquors would congeal the globules§ of blood that remain after the transuding of the aqueous humour.

In cold countries, the aqueous part of the blood is very little evacuated by perspiration. They may therefore make use of spirituous liquors, without which the blood would congeal. They are full of humours; consequently, strong liquors, which give a motion to the blood, are proper for those countries.

The law of Mahomet, which prohibits the drinking of wine, is therefore fitted to the climate of Arabia: and, indeed, before Mahomet’s time, water was the common drink of the Arabs. The law , which forbad the Carthaginians to drink wine, was also a law of the climate; and, indeed, the climate of those two countries is pretty near the same.

Such a law would be improper for cold countries, where the climate seems to force them to a kind of national intemperance, very different from personal ebriety. Drunkenness predominates throughout the world in proportion to the coldness and humidity of the climate. Go from the equator to the North pole, and you will find this vice increasing together with the degree of latitude: go from the equator again to the South pole, and you will find the same vice travelling South* , exactly in the same proportion.

It is very natural, that, where wine is contrary to the climate, and consequently to health, the excess of it should be more severely punished than in countries where intoxication produces very few bad effects to the person, fewer to the society, and where it does not make people frantic and wild, but only stupid and heavy. Hence those laws , which inflicted a double punishment for crimes committed in drunkenness, were applicable only to a personal, and not to a national, ebriety. A German drinks through custom, and a Spaniard by choice.

In warm countries, the relaxing of the fibres produces a great evacuation of the liquids, but the solid parts are less transpired. The fibres, which act but faintly, and have very little elasticity, are not much impaired; and a small quantity of nutritious juice is sufficient to repair them; for which reason, they eat very little.

It is the variety of wants, in different climates, that first occasioned a difference in the manner of living, and this gave rise to a variety of laws. Where people are very communicative, there must be particular laws; and others where there is but little communication.

[]Monsieur Bernier, travelling from Lahor to Cachemir, wrote thus: My body is a sieve: scarcely have I swallowed a pint of water, but I see it transude, like dew, out of all my limbs, even to my fingers ends. I drink ten pints a-day, and it does me no manner of harm. Bernier’s Travels, tom. ii. p. 261.

[§ ]In the blood, there are red globules, fibrous parts, white globules, and water, in which the whole swims.

[]Plato, book 2. of laws: Aristotle, of the care of domestic affairs: Eusebius’s evangelical preparation, book 12. c. 17.

[* ]This is seen in the Hottentots and the inhabitants of the most southern part of Chili.

[]As Pittacus did, according to Aristotle, Polit. lib. 1. c. 3. He lived in a climate where drunkenness is not a national vice.