Summary: The Spirit of Laws (page 7)
Book XII
As an Enlightenment philosopher, Montesquieu argues for freedom of thought:
Speech is so open to interpretation that the law can hardly subject words to capital punishment [...] Most of the time, [words] do not mean anything by themselves, but by the tone in which they are said. Sometimes silence expresses more than all speech. There is nothing so equivocal as all that. How then to make it a crime of lèse-majesté?
Book XIV
Montesquieu examines the relationship between laws and the physical characteristics of a country—its climate, geography, and terrain.
The customs of a people, he argues, depend on the climate in which they live. Since laws are made by people shaped by those customs and are intended to regulate them, laws are therefore indirectly influenced by climate.
Cold air has a physiological effect: it tightens the fibres of the heart. People in colder countries thus tend to have greater physical strength, whereas hot climates are associated with weakness and general languor.
Conversely, in cold countries, there will be little sensitivity for pleasures; [...] in hot countries, it will be extreme
1.
Among other examples, Montesquieu notes that in England, opera audiences remain calm, whereas in Italy they are carried away by their emotions.
He develops multiple hypotheses about the connections between climate, physiology, and the psychology of different peoples. From this perspective, bad legislators are those who encourage the vices inherent in a given climate.
Book XV
This section contains Montesquieu's famous denunciation of slavery.
At first glance, he seems to defend it—but one must read between the lines to grasp the irony. His argument is in reality a scathing critique.
Book XVIII
The more fertile a country, the stronger the demand for despotism—or, more broadly, for the rule of a single authority. Peasants in particular seek protection under a powerful ruler. In barren lands, by contrast, people tend to favour democracy.
Flat terrain is conducive to despotism because it offers no natural defences—one cannot hide or protect oneself. Mountainous regions, on the other hand, favour democracies, providing natural fortifications and encouraging the emergence of counter-powers.
The sterility of land makes men warlike and industrious, whereas the fertility of a country, by providing abundance with ease, fosters softness and cowardice.
Book XIX
In this book, Montesquieu defines the general spirit of a people. This spirit is shaped by a multitude of factors:
Many things govern people: climate, religion, laws, maxims of government, examples of things past, mores, manners; from which a general spirit is formed which results 2.
One of these factors will tend to dominate within a given people, exerting a decisive influence on their general spirit: As in each nation one of these causes acts with greater force, the others yield to it in proportion
3.
Montesquieu provides several examples: Nature and climate almost alone dominate the savages; manners govern the Chinese; laws tyrannise Japan; manners formerly set the tone in Lacedemonia; the maxims of government and ancient mores set it in Rome
4.
Laws must not run counter to the general spirit of a nation.
In a frivolous nation, for instance, laws should not be made against luxury.
It is as dangerous, and more so, to overthrow the general spirit as to change a particular institution
5.
Likewise, when we wish to change morals, we must not change them by laws: that would seem too tyrannical; it is better to change them by other morals
6.
Peter I, who forced his subjects to shave their beards, acted tyrannically. It is better to change customs by example.
Montesquieu sums up the fundamental influence of climate on laws in a single line:
The empire of climate is the first of all empires 7.
1 XIV, chap.2
2 XIX, chap.4
3 ibid.
4 ibid.
5 XIX, chap.12
6 XIX, chap. 14
7 ibid.