Of Refinement in the Arts (1777) [ Concepts ]
… may safely affirm, that the Tartars are oftener guilty of beastly gluttony, when they feast on their dead horses, than European courtiers with all their refinements of cookery. And if libertine love, or even infidelity to the marriage-bed, … cannot maintain or support its fleets and armies, from the industry of such slothful members. The bounds of all the European kingdoms are, at present, nearly the same they were two hundred years ago: But what a difference is there in the … uncivilized people that ever possessed military discipline; so the modern Italians are the only civilized people, among Europeans, that ever wanted courage and a martial spirit. Those who would ascribe this effeminacy of the Italians to …
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