6a 



drama, and the rousing and animated strains of a mascu- 

 line eloquence, it relaxed the mind into indolence and soft 

 indulgence: it produced the Lydian measure of music, 

 effeminate and voluptuous in the extreme: it produced a 

 race of amorous poets, who celebrated love, the prevailing 

 sentiment of the country, with all the truth of nature, and 

 all the embellishments of fancy. Thus were the chains of 

 the people so entwined in myrtle and flowers, that they 

 were concealed from view, and scarcely prest on the limbs 

 that bore them. 



Climate may influence the^ne arts, in a less direct itian- 

 ner, by predisposing men to receive certain forms of go- 

 vernment; and contributing, in other respects, to their 

 establishment. The East, the original seat of patriarchal 

 authority, seems to have been, at all times, the chosen re- 

 sidence, and head quarters, of arbitrary power. Montes- 

 quieu endeavours, with much ingenuity, to explain the 

 cause. " In Asia, countries, which are very cold, border 

 " on others, which are very hot; as Turkey, Persia, India, 

 " and Japan.* In Europe, on the contrary, the temperate 

 " zone is very extensive, though situated in limits very 

 " different from each other; there being no affinity between 

 " the climates of Spain and Italy, and those of Denmark 

 " and Sweden. But, as the climate grows insensibly colder, 

 " on our proceeding from south to north, accoixling to the 

 " latitude of each country, it follows, that each resembles, 

 " in point of climate, the country adjoining; that there is 



"no 



* See Spirit af Laws, B. XVII. c. iii. Nugent's Translation, Vol. I. p. 393» 



