THE THREE FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 



their own rights, and they say that nothing can be freer, happier, or 

 more excellent ; since shey are the masters of the laws, of the courts 

 of justice, of war and of peace, of treaties, and of the life and fortune 

 of every citizen ; and this alone, in their opinion, is properly entitled 

 to the name of a commonwealth, that is, the weal of the community. 

 It is for this reason that a state often breaks from the domination of 

 kings and of senates, and asserts its right to liberty, and that free 

 people do not put themselves under the government of kings, or 

 under the power and influence of an aristocracy. They further say, 

 that this scheme of popular liberty ought not to be rejected on ac- 

 count of the crimes of a wild, ungovernable people; that nothing is 

 more immutable, nothing more durable, than a people unanimous in 

 their sentiments, and performing every act with reference to their 

 security and and liberty : that concord is most easily obtained in a 

 state where every thing is of the same advantage to all ; that discord 

 is produced by a variety of conflicting interests, when the same thing 

 does not equally* interest every citizen. Thus, when an aristocracy 

 has obtained the supreme power, the commonwealth has never re- 

 tained its splendour ; and far less in monarchies, in which, as Ennius 

 says, 



Nor faith nor holy concord e'er exist. 



Therefore, since law is the bond of civil society, and equality is the 

 equity of law, by what equity can the union of citizens be retained, 

 when their condition is not equal ? 



" But * supposing a free people should have the choice of those to 

 whom they might entrust their interests, and should choose the most 

 excellent citizens, as they certainly would, if they wished to enjoy 

 security, it must be admitted that the safety of states depends on the 

 counsels of these men ; and especially since nature has implanted this 

 principle, that those who are distinguished for their virtue and intellect A 

 should not only rule the weaker, but that the latter also should be 

 desirous of submitting to the former. They further tell us that this 

 most excellent form of government has been destroyed by the erro- 

 neous opinions of mankind, who, through their ignorance of virtue, 

 which few actually possess, and which few can appreciate, suppose 

 that the best men are those who abound in the greatest opulence and 

 wealth, and are descended from an illustrious family. When, in 

 consequence of this mistake of the multitude, the power, and not the 

 virtues, of a few, have kept possession of the republic, these chiefs 

 obstinately retain the title of the aristocracy, while in reality they 

 have no right to that appellation ; for riches, glory, and influence, 

 without any fixed method by which your own life may be regulated, 

 and other men may be governed, are replete with infamy and super- 

 cilious insolence ; nor is there any form of government more detest- 

 able than that in which the most opulent are reckoned the most 

 excellent. And what can be more illustrious than a state under the 

 government of virtue? When the man who commands others is 

 himself a slave to no inordinate passion ; when all the tilings which 



Book l.ch. 34. 



