medied. The laws which we have just established relating to agriculture, will render the life of your subjects laborious; and they will have necessaries only in the midst of their abundance, because we suppress all such arts as furnish superfluities. Nay, this very abundance will be lessened, by faciliting mariages and by the great increase of families. Every family being numerous, and having but little land, will be obliged to cultivate it with incessant labour. It is luxury and idleness which make people insolent and rebellious. They will have bread indeed, and enough of it; but they will have nothing but the bread and the fruits which their own lands produce, and they earn with the sweat of their brows.

To keep your people in this moderation, you must forthwith settle the extent of ground which each family shall possess. You know that we have divided all your subjects into seven classes, accor ding to their different conditions: now no family in any class must be allowed to possess more land than is absolutely necessary to maintain the persons of whom it is composed. This rule being inviolable, the nobles will not be able to make purchases from the poor: all will have lands; but each will have but very little, and be thereby excited to cultivate it well. If in length of time lands should be wanting at home, you may settle colonies abroad, which would extend the limits of this state.

I think also that you ought to take care not to let wine become too common in your kingdom. If too many vines have been planted, they must be plucked up: wine is the source of the greatest evils among the people; it is the cause of diseases, quarrels, seditions, idleness, an aversion to labour, and family Vol. II.

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goût du travail, le désordre des familles. Que le vin soit donc réservé comme une espèce de remède, ou comme une liqueur très-rare, qui n'est employée que pour les sacrifices ou pour les fêtes extraordinaires. Mais n'espérez point de faire observer une règle si importante, si vous n'en donnez vous même l'exemple.

D'ailleurs il faut faire garder inviolablement les lois de Minos pour l'éducation des enfans. Il faut établir des écoles publiques où l'on enseigne la crainte des Dieux, l'amour de la patrie, le respect des lois, la préférence de l'honneur aux plaisirs et à la vie même.

Il faut avoir des magistrats qui veillent sur les familles et sur les mœurs des particuliers. Veillez vous-même, vous qui n'êtes roi, c'est-à-dire pas teur du peuple, que pour veiller nuit et jour sur votre troupeau par-là vous préviendrez un nom bre infini de désordres et de crimes. Ceux que vous ne pourrez prévenir, punissez-les d'abord sévèrement. C'est une clémence que de faire d'abord des exemples qui arrêtent le cours de l'iniquité. Par un peu de sang répandu à propos, on en épar gne beaucoup, et on se met en état d'être craint sans user souvent de rigueur.

Mais quelle détestable maxime que de ne croire trouver sa sûreté que dans l'oppression de ses peuples! Ne les point faire instruire, ne les point conduire à la vertu, ne s'en faire jamais aimer, les pousser par la terreur jusqu'au désespoir, les mettre dans l'affreuse nécessité, ou de ne pouvoir jamais respirer librement, ou de secouer le joug de votre tyrannique domination; est-ce là le vrai moyen de régner sans trouble? est-ce là le vrai chemin qui mène à la gloire?

Souvenez-vous que les pays où la domination du souverain est plus absolue, sont ceux où les

disorders. Let wine, therefore, be preserved as a kind of cordial, or very choice liquor that is used only in sacrifices, and on very extraordinary festivals. But expect not to make so important a rule to be observed, unless you yourself set an example of it.

Moreover, you must cause the laws of Minos, relating to the education of children, to be inviolably observed. Public schools must be established, in which they must be taught to fear the Gods, to love their country, to reverence the laws, and to prefer honour to pleasures and to life itself."

Magistrates must be appointed to have an eye upon families and the manners of private persons. Have an eye upon them yourself; for you are not a king, that is, the shepherd of your people, but to watch over your flock both night and day: thereby you will prevent an infinite number of disorders and crimes. Those which you cannot prevent, punish immediately with severity. It is clemency to make examples at first, which may stop the tide of iniquity. By a little blood shed in due time, a great deal is afterwards saved; and it makes a prince feared, without being often severe.

1

But how detestable a maxim is it for him to think to find his safety only in the oppression of his people! Not to instruct them, not to guide them to virtue, nor to make himself beloved by them, to terrify them into despair, to lay them under the dreadful necessity either not to breathe with freedom, or to shake off the yoke of his tyrannical sway; is this, I say, the way to reign easy? is this the path which leads to glory?

Remember that the countries in which the power of the sovereign in most absolute, are those where

ils

souverains sont moins puissans. Ils prennent, ruinent tout, ils possèdent seuls tout l'état; mais aussi tout l'état languit, les campagnes sont en friche et presque désertes, les villes diminuent chaque jour, le commerce tarit. Le roi, qui ne peut être roi tout seul, et qui n'est grand que par ses peuples, s'anéantit lui-même peu à peu par Janéantissement insensible des peuples, dont il tire ses richesses et sa puissance. Son état s'épuise d'argent et d'hommes; cette dernière perte est la plus irréparable. Son pouvoir absolu fait autant d'esclaves qu'il a de sujets. On le flatte, on fait semblant de l'adorer, on tremble au moindre de ses regards mais attendez la moindre révolution; cette puissance monstrueuse, poussée jusqu'à un excès trop violent, ne sauroit durer; elle n'a aucune ressource dans le cœur des peuples; elle lissé et irrité tous les corps de l'état; elle contraint tous les membres de ces corps de soupirer après un changement. Au premier coup qu'on lui porte, l'idole se renverse, se brise, et est foulée aux pieds. Le mépris, la haine, la crainte, le ressentiment, la défiance, en un mot toutes les passions, se réunissent contre une autorité si odieuse. Le roi, qui dans sa yaine prospérité ne trouvoit pas un seul homme assez hardi pour lui dire la vérité, ne trouvera dans son malheur aucun homme qui daigne ni l'excuser ni le défendre contre ses ennemis.

a

Après ce discours, Idoménée, persuadé par Mentor, se hâta de distribuer les terres vacantes, de les remplir de tous les artisans inutiles, et d'exé cuter tout ce qui avoit été résolu; il réserva seulement pour les maçons les terres qu'il leur avoit destinées, et qu'ils ne pouvoient cultiver qu'après la fin de leurs travaux dans la ville.

FIN DU LIVRE DOUZIÈME.

the sovereigns are least powerful. They seize, they ruin every thing, they alone possess the whole state but the whole state languishes, the fields are unti led and almost desert, the cities dwindle away daily, the springs of trade are dried up. The king, who cannot be a king alone, and who is great but by means of his people, wastes away gradually by the insensible wasting away of his sujetcts, from whom he derives his riches and power. His kingdom is drained of money and men, and this last loss is the greatest and the most irreparable. His absolute power makes as many slaves as he has subjects. They flatter him, they seem to adore him, they tremble at the least glance of his eyes: but when the least revolution happens, this monstrous, power which was carried to too violent an excess, cannot continue; it has no ressource in the hearts of the people; it has wearied out and provoked the whole body politic; it constrains all the members of that body to pant after a change. At the first blow that is given it, the idol is thrown down, dashed in pieces, and trampled under foot. Contempt, hatred, fear, resentment, suspicion, in short, all the passions, unite against so odious a power. The king, who in his vain prosperity did not find a single man bold enough to tell him the truth, will not find in his misfortunes a single man who deigns to excuse him, or to defend him against his enemies.

After this discourse, Idomeneus at Mentor's persuasion made haste to distribute the waste lands, to stock them with the useless artificers, and to execute every thing that had been resolved upon; reserving only for the masons the lands which he had allotted to them, and which they could not cultivate 'till they had finished their works in the city.

END OF THE TWELFTH BOOK.