h as
usually make up the community, I ask, will there then be any reason to
dispute concerning who shall govern, or will there not? for in every
community which we have mentioned there is no dispute where the supreme
power should be placed; for as these differ from each other, so do those
in whom that is placed; for in one state the rich enjoy it, in others
the meritorious, and thus each according to their separate manners. Let
us however consider what is to be done when all these happen at the same
time to inhabit the same city. If the virtuous should be very few in
number, how then shall we act? shall we prefer the virtuous on account
of their abilities, if they are capable of governing the city? or should
they be so many as almost entirely to compose the state?

There is also a doubt concerning the pretensions of all those who claim
the honours of government: for those who found them either on fortune or
family have nothing which they can justly say in their defence; since
it is evident upon their principle, that if any one person can be found
richer than all the rest, the right of governing all these will be
justly vested in this one person. In the same manner, one man who is
of the best family will claim it from those who dispute the point upon
family merit: and probably in an aristocracy the same dispute might
arise on the score of virtue, if there is one man better than all the
other men of worth who are in the same community; it seems just, by the
same reasoning, that he should enjoy the supreme power. And upon this
principle also, while the many suppose they ought to have the supreme
command, as being more powerful than the few, if one or more than one,
though a small number should be found stronger than themselves, these
ought rather to have it than they.

All these things seem to make it plain, that none of these principles
are justly founded on which these persons would establish their right to
the supreme power; and that all men whatsoever ought to obey them:
for with respect to those who claim it as due to their virtue or their
fortune, they might have justly some objection to make; for nothing
hinders but that it may sometimes happen, that the many may be better
or richer than the few, not as individuals, but in their collective
capacity.

As to the doubt which some persons have proposed and objected, we may
answer it in this manner; it is this, whether a legislator, who would
establish the most perfec