论法的精神 （在政治国家中品德的意义）

Idea of this Book.

    That the laws of education should relate to the principle of each government has been shown in the preceding book. Now the same may be said of those which the legislator gives to the whole society. The relation of laws to this principle strengthens the several springs of government; and this principle derives thence, in its turn, a new degree of vigour. And thus it is in mechanics, that action is always followed by reaction. [法律和政体原则的关系是相辅相成的]

      Our design is, to examine this relation in each government, beginning with the republican state, the principle of which is virtue.

      What is meant by Virtue in a political State.【在政治国家中品德的意义】

      Virtue in a republic is a most simple thing: it is a love of the republic; it is a sensation, and not a consequence of acquired knowledge: a sensation that may be felt by the meanest as well as by the highest person in the state. When the common people adopt good maxims, they adhere to them more steadily than those whom we call gentlemen. It is very rarely that corruption commences with the former: nay, they frequently derive from their imperfect light a stronger attachment to the established laws and customs.【热爱共和国就是共和国的美德。并且民众对已确立的法律和习俗有着更强烈的依恋。】

      The love of our country is conducive to a purity of morals, and the latter is again conducive to the former. The less we are able to satisfy our private passions, the more we abandon ourselves to those of a general nature. How comes it that monks are so fond of their order? It is owing to the very cause that renders the order insupportable. Their rule debars them from all those things by which the ordinary passions are fed; there remains therefore only this passion for the very rule that torments them. The more austere it is, that is, the more it curbs their inclinations, the more force it givfes to the only passion left them.

【对祖国的热爱促使民风淳朴，而善序良俗又会促使对祖国的热爱。个人感情越得不到满足，就越能够为公众奉献感情。】