living beings, to have numerous flocks, young and fruitful virgins, a
multitude of children," etc., etc.

Among the aqueducts of Palmyra it appears certain, that, besides those
which conducted water from the neighboring hills, there was one which
brought it even from the mountains of Syria. It is to be traced a long
way into the Desert where it escapes our search by going under ground.


Thus ancient states prospered, because their social institutions
conformed to the true laws of nature; and because men, enjoying liberty
and security for their persons and their property, might display all the
extent of their faculties,--all the energies of their self-love.



CHAPTER XI.

GENERAL CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTIONS AND RUIN OF ANCIENT STATES.


Cupidity had nevertheless excited among men a constant and universal
conflict, which incessantly prompting individuals and societies to
reciprocal invasions, occasioned successive revolutions, and returning
agitations.

And first, in the savage and barbarous state of the first men, this
audacious and fierce cupidity produced rapine, violence, and murder, and
retarded for a long time the progress of civilization.