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be mannerly at the public table, and give the best from himself to decency and the common interest. But that such orders may be established, as may, nay, must give the upper hand in all cases to common right or interest, notwithstanding the nearness of that which sticks to every man in private, and this in a way of equal certainty and facility, is known even to girls, being no other than those that are of common practice with them in divers cases. For example, two of them have a cake yet undivided, which was given between them: that each of them therefore may have that which is due, divide, says one to the other, and I will chuse; or let me divide, and you shall chuse. If this be but once agreed upon, it is enough; for the divident, dividing unequally, loses, in regard that the other takes the better half; wherefore she divides equally, and sa both have right. O the depth of the wisdom of God! and yet by the mouths of babes and sucklings has be set forth his strength; that which great philosophers are disputing upon in vain, is brought to light by two harmless girls, even the whole mystery of a commonwealth, which lies only in dividing and chusing. Nor has God (if his works in nature be understood) left so much to mankind to dispute upon, as who shall divide and who shall choose, but distributed them for ever into two orders, whereof the

one has the natural right of dividing, and the other

of chusing. For example:

The Orders of Popular Government in Nature.

A commonwealth is but a civil society of men: let us take any number of men (as twenty) and imme diately make a commonwealth. Twenty men (if they be not all idiots, perhaps if they be) can never come so together, but there will be such a difference in them, that about a third will be wiser, or at least less foolish, than the rest; these upon acquaintance, though it be but small, will be discovered, and (as stags that have the largest heads) lead the herd: for while the six discoursing and arguing one with another, shew the eminence of their parts, the fourteen discover things that they never thought on; or are cleared in divers truths which had formerly perplexed them. Wherefore in matter of common concernment, difficulty, or danger, they hang upon their lips as children upon their fathers; and the influence thus acquired by the six, the eminence of whose parts is found to be a stay and comfort to the fourteen, is (authoritas patrum) the authority of the fathers. Wherefore this can be no other than a natural aristocracy, diffused by God throughout the whole body of mankind, to this end and purpose j and therefore such as the people have not only a na

tural but a positive obligation to make use of as their guides, as where the people of Israel are com manded to take wise men, and understanding, and known among their tribes, to be made rulers over them. (Deut. i. 13.) The six then approved of, as in the present case, are the senate, not by hereditary 1ight, in regard of the greatness of their estates only, (which would tend to such power as might force of draw the people) but by election for their excellent parts, which tends to the advancement of the influence of their virtue or authority that leads the people. Wherefore the office of the senate is not to be commanders, but counsellors of the people; and that which is proper to counsellors is first to debate, and afterward to give advice in the business whereupon they have debated; whence the decrees of the senate are never laws, nor so (senatús consulta) called: and these being maturely framed, it is their duty (ferre ad populum) to propose the case to the people. Wherefore the senate is no more than the debate of the commonwealth. But to debate, is to discern or put a difference between things that, being alike, are not the same; or it is separating and weighing this reason against that, and that reason against this which is dividing.

The senate having then divided, who shall chuse? Ask the girls for if she that divided must have chosen also, it had been little worse for the other in

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case she had not divided at all, but kept the whole cake to herself, in regard that being to chuse too she divided accordingly. Wherefore, if the senate have any farther power than to divide, the commonwealth can never be equal. But in a commonwealth consisting of a single council, there is no other to choose than that which divided; whence it is that such a council fails not to scramble, that is, to be factious, there being no other dividing of the cake in that case but among themselves.

Nor is there any remedy but to have another council to chuse. The wisdom of the few may be the light of mankind; but the interest of the few is not the profit of mankind, nor of a commonwealth. Wherefore, seeing we have granted interest to be reason, they must not chuse lest it put out their light. But as the council dividing consists of the wisdom of the commonwealth, so the assembly or council chusing should consist of the interest of the commonwealth: as the wisdom of the commonwealth is in the aristocracy, so the interest of the commonwealth is in the whole body of the people. And whereas this, in case the commonwealth con sist of a whole nation, is too unwieldy a body to be assembled, this council is to consist of such a representative as may be equal, and so constituted as can never contract any other interest than that of the whole people; the manner whereof, being such

as is best shewn by exemplification, I remit to the model. But in the present case, the six dividing, and the fourteen chusing, must of necessity take in the whole interest of the twenty.

Dividing and chusing, in the language of a commonwealth, is debating and resolving; and whatsoever upon debate of the senate is proposed to the people, and resolved by them, is enacted (authoritate patrum et jussu populi) by the authority of the fathers, and by the power of the people, which concurring, make a law.

But the law being made, says Leviathan, is but words and paper, without the hands and swords of men ; wherefore as those two orders of a commonwealth, namely, the senate and the people, are legislative, so of necessity there must be a third to be executive of the laws made, and this is the magistracy; in which order, with the rest being up by art, the commonwealth consists of the senate proposing, the people resolving, and the magistracy executing: whereby partaking of the aristocracy, as in the senate; of the democracy, as in the people; and of monarchy, as in the magistracy, it is complete. Now there being no other commonwealth but this in art or nature, it is no wonder if Machiavel has shewed us that the an cients held this only to be good; but it seems strange to me that they should hold that there could be any other for if there be such a thing as pure mo

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