STUDY VIT. ^ 47 



Without paying regard to the common divi- 

 fion of Governments *, into Democracy, Arifto- 

 cracy, and Monarchy, which are only, at bottom, 



political 



* Politicians, in claffing Governments according to thefe 

 exterior refemblances in form, have afted precifely as thofe Bo- 

 tanifts do, who comprehend in the fame category, plants which 

 have fimilar flowers or leaves, without paying any attention to 

 their virtues. The Botanift clafles together the oak and the 

 pimpernel ; and the Politician the Roman Republic and that of 

 St. Marino. This is not the way of obferving Nature : fhe is 

 throughout nothing but adaptation and harmony. Her fpirit, 

 not her forms, is the great thing which we ought to fludy. 



If in the Hiftory of any People you do not attend to it's moral 

 and internal conftitution, which fcarcely any Hiftorian keeps 

 fteadily in view, it will be impoflible to conceive how Republics, 

 appaiently well conftituted, have fuddenly funk into ruin : how 

 others, on the contrary, in which nothing but agitation appeared, 

 became formidable : whence arife the duration and the power 

 of Defpotic States, fo much decried by modern Authors : and, 

 finally, how it came to pafs, that, after the glorious reigns of 

 Marcus Aurelius and of Antoninus^ which have been fo highly ex- 

 tolled, the Roman Empire finiflied its progrefs to diflblution. 

 It was, I am bold enough to affirm, becaufe thofe good Princes 

 thought only of prefervingthe exterior form of the Government. 

 All was tranquillity around them ; the form of a Senate remain- 

 ed ; Rome was well fupplied with corn ; the garrifons in the pro- 

 vinces were regularly paid. There was no fedition, no difturb- 

 ance, every thing to appearance went on well. But during this 

 lethargy, the rich were going on in an unbounded accumula- 

 tion of property, and the people were lofing the little that they 

 had. The great offices of the State were engrofied by the fame 

 families. In order to have the means of fubfirtence, it was ne- 



ceflary 



