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cover
The Complete Works of Montesquieu. Electronic Edition.
cover
Volume I.
Body
BOOK XVIII.: OF LAWS IN THE RELATION THEY BEAR TO THE NATURE OF THE SOIL.
CHAP. XXIII.: Of the regal Ornaments among the Franks.

CHAP. XXIII.: Of the regal Ornaments among the Franks.

A people who do not cultivate the land have no idea of luxury. We may see, in Tacitus, the admirable simplicity of the German nations: they had no artificial elegancies of dress; their ornaments were derived from nature. If the family of their chief was to be distinguished by any sign, it was no other than that which nature bestowed. The kings of the Franks, of the Burgundians, and the Visigoths, wore their long hair for a diadem.

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