utive
power, there is no liberty, for liberty depends upon each of the three
powers being kept entirely separate. It is in this way that the balance
of the constitution is preserved. As all human things have an end,
England will one day lose its liberty, and perish. Rome, Sparta, and
Carthage have not been able to last. England will perish when the
legislative power grows more corrupt than the executive power.

_IV.--On Despotism_

From the nature of despotism it follows that a despot gives the
government into the hands of another man. A creature whose five senses
are always telling him that he is everything and that other men are
nothing is naturally idle, ignorant, and pleasure-seeking. He therefore
abandons the control of affairs. But if he entrusted them to several
persons there would be disputes among them, and the despot would be put
to the trouble of interfering in their intrigues. The easier way,
therefore, is for him to surrender all administration to a vizier, and
give him full power. The establishment of a vizier is a fundamental law
of despotism. The more people a despot has to govern, the less he thinks
of governing them; the greater the business of the state becomes, the
less trouble he takes to deliberate upon it.

A despotic state continually grows corrupt because it is corrupt in its
nature. Other forms of government perish through particular accidents; a
despotism perishes inwardly, even when several accidental causes seem to
support it.

It is only maintained when certain circumstances derived from the
climate, the religion, the situation, or the genius of a people compel
it to observe some order and submit to some regulation. These things
compel it, but do not change its nature; its ferocity remains, though
for a time it is tamed.

SIR THOMAS MORE

Utopia: Nowhere Land

Thomas More was born in London on February 7, 1478; his father, Sir
John, was a magistrate. The boy was placed in the household of the
Chancellor, Cardinal Morton, and went to Oxford. The young man had
thoughts of entering the religious life, but finally chose the law.
His most intimate friend was the great Dean Colet, and his
relations with Erasmus, the chief of the Humanists, were of the
most affectionate kind. He stood with these two in the forefront of
the great effort for the intellectual and moral reform of the
Church, which was soon to be overwhelmed in the political