established this maxim, the
most general of all that obtain among men, that each should follow the
custom of his own country. The glory of true equity would have brought all
nations under subjection, and legislators would not have taken as their
model the fancies and caprice of Persians and Germans instead of this
unchanging justice. We would have seen it set up in all the States on earth
and in all times; whereas we see neither justice nor injustice which does
not change its nature with change in climate. Three degrees of latitude
reverse all jurisprudence; a meridian decides the truth. Fundamental laws
change after a few years of possession; right has its epochs; the entry of
Saturn into the Lion marks to us the origin of such and such a crime. A
strange justice that is bounded by a river! Truth on this side of the
Pyrenees, error on the other side.

Men admit that justice does not consist in these customs, but that it
resides in natural laws, common to every country. They would certainly
maintain it obstinately, if reckless chance which has distributed human laws
had encountered even one which was universal; but the farce is that the
caprice of men has so many vagaries that there is no such law.

Theft, incest, infanticide, parricide, have all had a place among virtuous
actions. Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the
right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and
because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?

Doubtless there are natural laws; but good reason once corrupted has
corrupted all. Nihil amplius nostrum est; quod nostrum dicimus, artis est.40
Ex senatu