CHAP. XIII.
Of Jealousy.
Book XVI.
Chap. 13, & 14.WITH respect to nations we ought to distinguish between the passion of jealousy, and a jealousy arising from customs, manners, and laws. The one is a hot raging fever; the other, cold, but sometimes terrible, and may be joined with indifference and contempt.
The one, which is an abuse of love, derives its birth from love itself. The other depends only on manners, on the customs of a nation, on the laws of the country, and sometimes even on religion[1].
It is almost always the effect of the physical power of the climate; and at the same time, the remedy of this physical power.
CHAP. XIV.
Of the Eastern Manner of domestic Government.
WIVES are changed so often in the east, that they cannot have the power of domestic government. This care is therefore committed to the eunuchs, whom they entrust with all their keys, and the management of all the houshold affairs. "In Persia, says Sir John Chardin, they give wives their cloaths, as we do to children." Thus that care which seems so well to become them, that care which every where else is the first of their cares, does not at all concern them.
- ↑ Mahomet desired his followers to watch their wires; a certain Iman when he was dying said the same thing; and Confucius preached the same doctrine.
