The Spirit of the Laws (II)

by the rubricator, and also for large initials. Each column contains forty-two lines, which distinguishes this edition from the editions printed soon afterward, which were, respectively, of thirty-six and forty-five lines per column. Both of these later editions were erroneously attributed to Gutenberg, while they are now considered to be subsequent issues by Fust and Schoeffer. BOOK XXIII OF LAWS IN THE RELATION THEY BEAR TO THE NUMBER OF INHABITANTS I. — Of Men and Animals with respect to the Multiplication of their Species " Delight of human kind,a and gods above ; Parent of Rome, propitious Queen of Love ; For when the rising spring adorns the mead, And a new scene of nature stands display'd ; When teeming buds, and cheerful greens appear, And western gales unlock the lazy year; The joyous birds thy welcome first express. Whose native songs thy genial fire confess: Then savage beasts bound o'er their slighted food, Struck with thy darts, and tempt the raging flood : All nature is thy gift, earth, air, and sea; Of all that breathes the various progeny. Stung with delight, is goaded on by thee. O'er barren mountains, o'er the flow'ry plain, The leafy forest, and the liquid main. Extends thy uncontroU'd and boundless reign. Thro' all the living regions thou dost move. And scatter'st where thou go'st the kindly seeds of love." THE females of brutes have an almost constant fecundity. But in the human species, the manner of thinking, the character, the passions, the humor, the caprice, the idea of preserving beauty, the pain of child-bearing, and the fatigue of a too numerous family, obstruct propagation in a thousand different ways.