16.9. 9. Of the Connection between domestic and political Government.
In a republic the condition of citizens is moderate, equal, mild, and
agreeable; everything partakes of the benefit of public liberty. An
empire over the women cannot, among them, be so well exerted; and where
the climate demands this empire, it is most agreeable to a monarchical
government. This is one of the reasons why it has ever been difficult to
establish a popular government in the East.
On the contrary, the slavery of women is perfectly conformable to
the genius of a despotic government, which delights in treating all with
severity. Thus at all times have we seen in Asia domestic slavery and
despotic government walk hand in hand with an equal pace.
In a government which requires, above all things, that a particular
regard be paid to its tranquillity, and where the extreme subordination
calls for peace, it is absolutely necessary to shut up the women; for
their intrigues would prove fatal to their husbands. A government which
has not time to examine into the conduct of its subjects views them with
a suspicious eye, only because they appear and suffer themselves to be
known.
Let us only suppose that the levity of mind, the indiscretions, the
tastes and caprices of our women, attended by their passions of a higher
and a lower kind, with all their active fire, and in that full liberty
with which they appear amongst us, were conveyed into an eastern
government, where would be the father of a family who could enjoy a
moment's repose? The men would be everywhere suspected, everywhere
enemies; the state would be overturned, and the kingdom overflowed with
rivers of blood.
