14.5. 5. That those are bad Legislators who favour the Vices of the
Climate, and good Legislators who oppose those Vices.
The Indians believe that repose and non-existence are the foundation of all things,
and the end in which they terminate. Hence they consider entire inaction
as the most perfect of all states, and the object of their desires. To
the Supreme Being they give the title of immovable.
[8]
The inhabitants of Siam believe that their utmost happiness
[9]
consists in not being obliged to animate a machine, or to give motion to a body.
In those countries where the excess of heat enervates and exhausts
the body, rest is so delicious, and motion so painful, that this system
of metaphysics seems natural; and Foe,
[10]
the legislator of the Indies,
was directed by his own sensations when he placed mankind in a state
extremely passive; but his doctrine arising from the laziness of the
climate favoured it also in its turn; which has been the source of an
infinite deal of mischief.
The legislators of China were more rational when, considering men
not in the peaceful state which they are to enjoy hereafter, but in the
situation proper for discharging the several duties of life, they made
their religion, philosophy, and laws all practical. The more the
physical causes incline mankind to inaction, the more the moral causes
should estrange them from it.
Footnotes
[8]
Panamanack: See Kircher.
[9]
La Loubere, "Account of the Kingdom of Siam," p. 446.
[10]
Foe endeavoured to reduce the heart to a mere vacuum: "We have
eyes and ears, but perfection consists in neither seeing nor hearing; a
mouth, hands, &c., but perfection requires that these members should
be inactive." This is taken from the dialogue of a Chinese philosopher,
quoted by Father Du Halde, tome iii.
