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The Spirit of the Laws

  
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The Translator to the Reader
  
CONTENTS
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PREFACE
  
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Book I. Of Laws in General.
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Book II. Of Laws Directly Derived from the Nature of Government.
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Book III. Of the Principles of the Three Kinds of Government.
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Book IV. That the Laws of Education Ought to Be in Relation to the Principles of Government.
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Book V. That the Laws Given by the Legislator Ought to Be in Relation to the Principle of Government.
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Book VI. Consequences of the Principles of Different Governments with Respect to the Simplicity of Civil and Criminal Laws, the Form of Judgments, and the Inflicting of Punishments.
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Book VII. Consequences of the Different Principles of the Three Governments with Respect to Sumptuary Laws, Luxury, and the Condition of Women.
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Book VIII. Of the Corruption of the Principles of the Three Governments.
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Book IX., Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to a Defensive Force.
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Book X. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to Offensive Force.
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Book XI. Of the Laws Which Establish Political Liberty, with Regard to the Consti- tution.
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Book XII. Of the Laws That Form Political Liberty, in Relation to the Subject.
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Book XIII. Of the Relation Which the Levying of Taxes and the Greatness of the Public Revenues Bear to Liberty.
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Book XIV. Of Laws in Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XV. In What Manner the Laws of Civil Slavery Relate to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XVI. How the Laws of Domestic Slavery Bear a Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XVII., How the Laws of Political Servitude Bear a Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XVIII. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to the Nature of the Soil.
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Book XIX. Of Laws in Relation to the Principles Which Form the General Spirit, Morals, and Customs of a Nation.
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Book XX. Of Laws in Relation to Commerce, Considered in its Nature and Distinctions.
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Book XXI. Of Laws in relation to Commerce, considered in the Revolutions it has met with in the World.
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Book XXII. Of Laws in Relation to the Use of Money.
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Book XXIII. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to the Number of Inhabitants.
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Book XXIV. Of Laws in relation to Religion Considered in Itself, and in its Doctrines.
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Book XXV. Of Laws in Relation to the Establishment of Religion and its External Polity.
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Book XXVI. Of Laws in Relation to the Order of Things Which They Determine.
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1. Idea of this Book.
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2. Of Laws divine and human.
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3. Of civil Laws contrary to the Law of Nature.
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4. The same Subject continued.
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5. Cases in which we may judge by the Principles of the civil Law in limiting the Principles of the Law of Nature.
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6. That the Order of succession or Inheritance depends on the Principles of political or civil Law, and not on those of the Law of Nature.
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7. That we ought not to decide by the Precepts of Religion what belongs only to the Law of Nature.
  
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Footnotes
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8. That we ought not to regulate by the Principles of the canon Law Things which should be regulated by those of the civil Law.
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9. That Things which ought to be regulated by the Principles of civil Law can seldom be regulated by those of Religion.
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10. In what Case we ought to follow the civil Law which permits, and not the Law of Religion which forbids.
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11. That human Courts of Justice should not be regulated by the Maxims of those Tribunals which relate to the Other Life.
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12. The same Subject continued.
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13. In what Cases, with regard to Marriage, we ought to follow the Laws of Religion; and in what Cases we should follow the civil Laws.
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14. In what instances Marriages between Relatives shall be regulated by the Laws of Nature: and in what instances by the civil Laws.
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15. That we should not regulate by the Principles of political Law those Things which depend on the Principles of civil Law.
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16. That we ought not to decide by the Rules of the civil Law when it is proper to decide by those of the political Law.
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17. The same Subject continued.
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18. That it is necessary to inquire whether the Laws which seem contradictory are of the same Class.
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19. That we should not decide those Things by the civil Law which ought to be decided by domestic Laws.
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20. That we ought not to decide by the Principles of the civil Laws those Things which belong to the Law of Nations.
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21. That we should not decide by political Laws Things which belong to the Law of Nations.
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22. The unhappy State of the Inca Athualpa.
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23. That when, by some Circumstance, the political Law becomes destructive to the State, we ought to decide by such a political Law as will preserve it, which sometimes becomes a Law of Nations.
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24. That the Regulations of the Police are of a different Class from other civil Laws.
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25. That we should not follow the general Disposition of the civil Law, in things which ought to be subject to particular Rules drawn from their own Nature.
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Book XXVII. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Roman Laws on Successions.
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Book XXVIII. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Civil Laws among the French.
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Book XXIX. Of the Manner of Composing Laws.
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Book XXX. Theory of the Feudal Laws among the Franks in the Relation They Bear to the Establishment of the Monarchy.
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Book XXXI. Theory of the Feudal Laws among the Franks, in the Relation They Bear to the Revolutions of their Monarchy.

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When a people have pure and regular manners, their laws become simple and natural. Plato [25] says that Rhadamanthus, who governed a nation extremely religious, finished every process with extraordinary despatch, administering only the oath on each accusation. "But," says the same Plato, [26] "when a people are not religious we should never have recourse to an oath, except he who swears is entirely disinterested, as in the case of a judge and a witness."

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