Book XIV.
Chap. 13.that the government above-mentioned is the fittest for them. This character of impatience is not very considerable of itself; but it may become so when joined with courage.
It is quite a different thing from levity, which makes people undertake or drop a project without cause; it borders more upon obstinacy, because it proceeds from so lively a sense of misery, that it is not weakened even by the habit of suffering.
This character in a free nation is extremely proper for disconcerting the projects of tyranny[1], which is always slow and feeble in its commencements, as in the end it is active and lively; which at first only stretches out a hand to assist, and exerts afterwards a multitude of arms to oppress.
Slavery is ever preceded by sleep. But a people who find no rest in any situation, who continually explore every part, and feel nothing but pain, can hardly be lulled to sleep.
Politics are like a smooth file, which cuts slowly, and attains its end by a gradual and tedious progression. Now the people of whom we have been speaking, are incapable of bearing the delays, the details, and the coolness of negotiations: In these they are more unlikely to succeed than any other nation; hence they are apt to lose by treaties what they obtain by their arms.
- ↑ Hence I take this word for the design of subverting the established power, and especially that of democracy; this is the signification in which it was understood by the Greeks and Romans.
