ion, no calmness, no secrecy
in their consultations. A populace was always governed by excitements,
which spread among them by a common sympathy; and they would give way
impetuously to the most senseless impulses, as they were urged by
their fear, their resentment, their exultation, their hate, or by any
other passing emotion of the hour.

Megabyzus therefore disapproved of both a monarchy and a republic. He
recommended an oligarchy. "We are now," said he, "already seven. Let
us select from the leading nobles in the court and officers of the
army a small number of men, eminent for talents and virtue, and thus
form a select and competent body of men, which shall be the depository
of the supreme power. Such a plan avoids the evils and inconveniences
of both the other systems. There can be no tyranny or oppression
under such a system; for, if any one of so large a number should be
inclined to abuse his power, he will be restrained by the rest. On the
other hand, the number will not be so large as to preclude prudence
and deliberation in counsel, and the highest efficiency and energy in
carrying counsels into effect."

When Megabyzus had completed his speech, Darius expressed his opinion.
He said that the arguments of those who had already spoken appeared
plausible, but that the speakers had not dealt quite fairly by the
different systems whose merits they had discussed, since they had
compared a good administration of one form of government with a bad
administration of another. Every thing human was, he admitted, subject
to imperfection and liable to abuse; but on the supposition that each
of the three forms which had been proposed were equally well
administered, the advantage, he thought, would be strongly on the side
of monarchy. Control exercised by a single mind and will was far more
concentrated and efficient than that proceeding from any conceivable
combination. The forming of plans could be, in that case, more secret
and wary, and the execution of them more immediate and prompt. Where
power was lodged in many hands, all energetic exercise of it was
paralyzed by the dissensions, the animosities and the contending
struggles of envious and jealous rivals. These struggles, in fact,
usually resulted in the predominance of some one, more energetic or
more successful than the rest, the aristocracy or the democracy
running thus, of its own accord, to a despotism in the end, showing
that there were natural causes always te