are accustomed to say openly, and indeed to boast greatly,
that they have never learned, and have never taken the least pains to
explain, the principles of either establishing or maintaining a
commonwealth; and they look on this practical science as one which
belongs not to men of learning and wisdom, but to those who have made
it their especial study. How, then, can it be reasonable for such men
to promise their assistance to the State, when they shall be compelled
to it by necessity, while they are ignorant how to govern the republic
when no necessity presses upon it, which is a much more easy task?
Indeed, though it were true that the wise man loves not to thrust
himself of his own accord into the administration of public affairs,
but that if circumstances oblige him to it, then he does not refuse the
office, yet I think that this science of civil legislation should in no
wise be neglected by the philosopher, because all resources ought to be
ready to his hand, which he knows not how soon he may be called on to
use.

VII. I have spoken thus at large for this reason, because in this work
I have proposed to myself and undertaken a discussion on the government
of a state; and in order to render it useful, I was bound, in the first
place, to do away with this pusillanimous hesitation to mingle in
public affairs. If there be any, therefore, who are too much influenced
by the authority of the philosophers, let them consider the subject for
a moment, and be guided by the opinions of those men whose authority
and credit are greatest among learned men; whom I look upon, though
some of them have not personally governed any state, as men who have
nevertheless discharged a kind of office in the republic, inasmuch as
they have made many investigations into, and left many writings
concerning, state affairs. As to those whom the Greeks entitle the
Seven Wise Men, I find that they almost all lived in the middle of
public business. Nor, indeed, is there anything in which human virtue
can more closely resemble the divine powers than in establishing new
states, or in preserving those already established.

VIII. And concerning these affairs, since it has been our good fortune
to achieve something worthy of memorial in the government of our
country, and also to have acquired some facility of explaining the
powers and resources of politics, we can treat of this subject with the
weight of personal experience and the habit of instruction a