But the Hellenic race which is situated beneath them is likewise intermediate in character, being high-spirited and also intelligent. At the end of the C14th Khaldoun, an Arabian commentator, distinguished 7 different world climates. At both extremes, of hot and cold, he declared, people behaved like animals, devouring each other and living without law or religion. It was only temperate climates which gave rise to civilization. While in a cold climate people are not apt to feel either pain or pleasure, people in hot countries are always guided by a search for pleasure, especially that provided by sexual life.
Passions are here so violent that they often lead to crime.
However, with the increasing heat, people grow passive, deprived of any curiosity or lofty feelings. Happiness consists for them in idleness. When we say that sex has an influence upon moral ideas as they are expressed in the norms adopted by a society we can be using the term in any one of four ways. Pareto, for example, considered women more compassionate and at the same time more cruel than men. Usually we attribute to men a predilection for violence and belligerence - crimes of violence are committed mainly by men.