evidence before them of their recent error in doing so. Thus
the only hope still surviving unimpaired is in themselves, and to this
they resort, making the state a democracy instead of an oligarchy and
assuming the responsibility for the conduct of affairs. Then as long
as some of those survive who experienced the evils of oligarchical
dominion, they are well pleased with the present form of government,
and set a high value on equality and freedom of speech. But when a
new generation arises and the democracy falls into the hands of the
grandchildren of its founders, they have become so accustomed to
freedom and equality that they no longer value them, and begin to aim
at pre-eminence; and it is chiefly those of ample fortune who fall into
this error. So when they begin to lust for power and cannot attain it
through themselves or their own good qualities, they ruin their estates,
tempting and corrupting the people in every possible way. And hence
when by their foolish thirst for reputation they have created among the
masses an appetite for gifts and the habit of receiving them, democracy
in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence.
For the people, having grown accustomed feed at the expense of others
and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others, as soon as
they find a leader who is enterprising but is excluded from the honors
of office by his poverty, institute the rule of violence; and now
uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they
degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and
monarch.

Such is the cycle of political revolution, the course pointed by nature
in which constitutions change, disappear, and finally return to the
point from which they started. Anyone who clearly perceives this may
indeed in speaking of the future of any state be wrong in his estimate
of the time the process will take, but if his judgment is not tainted by
animosity or jealousy, he will very seldom be mistaken to the stage of
growth or decline it has reached, and as to the form into which it will
change. And especially in the case of the Roman state will this method
enable us to arrive at a knowledge of its formation, growth, and
greatest perfection, and likewise of the change for the worse which is
sure follow some day. For, as I said, this state, more than any other,
has been formed and has grown naturally, and will undergo a natural
decline and change to