DANTE S TREATISE ON GOVKKN.MENT. 2^T, 



:bringeth forth his fruit in his season." But the man who Mill 

 not work in the garden of truth is " like a whirlpool engulphing 



-all that comes its way, and never giving back the good things it 

 has received." 



Every man who wishes to discuss the problems of government 

 must make up his mind some time or other what the main objec- 

 tive of a good government should be. The thirteenth century was 

 at one with the twentieth in holding that all sound government 

 must be in the true interests of the governed. And Dante lays 

 down a broad principle which should be the fountain of true 

 liberty, if a government is ever found that will put it fullv into 

 practice. . 



This principle is a fair sample of the wa\- in which the poet 

 quotes Aristotle \\hilst he improves upon him and carries his 

 meaning a step further than the author intended. First he cites 

 these words of Aristotle (Pol. I\'. , 1-9) : 



" The laws are, and ought to be, relative to the constitution and not the 

 constitution to the laws. "' 



Hence Dante infers : 

 ■" Secundum legem viventes, non ad legislatorem ordinantur. sed magis 

 ille ad hos." 



But this is only the intermediate step to a more momentous 

 conclusion : 



" Although the consul and king are the lords of others, if we regard the 

 means to be taken to secure the good of the state (this long sentence is 

 -necessary to explain the neat scholastic phrase, ' respectu viae'; if, on the 

 other hand, we look at the end for which the state exists, they (king and 

 consul) are the servants of others, and especially the emperor (monarcha) 

 who is undoubtedly the servant of all. Hence also it becomes clear that the 

 Emperor is constrained in legislating by this objective set before him."' 



The popular notion of an absolute monarch would not fit in 

 with this scheme. 



But so far Dante might walk in company with Jeremy Bentham 

 and a host of other writers whose paths really diverge greatly. 

 For serious differences arise when we ask : but what in precise 

 terms is this aim which a good government should have in view? 

 Is it the constant extension of the bounds of empire? Or a con- 

 stantly increasing revenue from commerce? Is it any of the con- 

 flicting schemes of the Socialists? Or is it that strangely undefined 

 thing, the greatest good of the greatest number? Some hundreds 

 of similar questions ha^"e been asked bv writers of note since 

 Dante's time, and the answers have been more numerous than 

 the questions. 



But I am not here to discuss the relative merits of these 

 answers, but merely to give you an idea of Dante's solution. As 

 became a scholastic, his answer was clear and well-defined. He 

 was able to assume, as an axiom of the current philosophy, that 

 the highest possible natural development for the individual of our 

 race was the fullest expression of his intellectual powers. For 

 the whole human race the highest development would therefore 

 consist in the fullest expansion of all the individuals of which it is 

 composed. He concluded that it was the duty of the Governor to 

 subordinate all lower aims to this. 



• Men. I, 12; I, 79; sgq. 



