But though law, the source of all security and happiness, arises late in any government, and is the
slow product of order and of liberty, it is not preserved with the same difficulty, with which it is
produced; but when it has once taken root, is a hardy plant, which will scarcely ever perish
through the ill culture of men, or the rigour of the seasons. The arts of luxury, and much more
the liberal arts, which depend on a refined taste or sentiment, are easily lost; because they are
always relished by a few only, whose leisure, fortune, and genius fit them for such amusements.
But what is profitable to every mortal, and in common life, when once discovered, can scarcely
fall into oblivion, but by the total subversion of society, and by such furious inundations of
barbarous invaders, as obliterate all memory of former arts and civility. Imitation also is apt to
transport these coarser and more useful arts from one climate to another, and make them precede
the refined arts in their progress; though perhaps they sprang after them in their first rise and
propagation. From these causes proceed civilized monarchies; where the arts of government, first
invented in free states, are preserved to the mutual advantage and security of sovereign and
subject.
I.
XIV.26