ny sure abode,
than which there certainly is no more desirable blessing. And if it be
not equally established for every one, it is not even liberty at all.
And how can there be this character of equality, I do not say under a
monarchy, where slavery is least disguised or doubtful, but even in
those constitutions in which the people are free indeed in words, for
they give their suffrages, they elect officers, they are canvassed and
solicited for magistracies; but yet they only grant those things which
they are obliged to grant whether they will or not, and which are not
really in their free power, though others ask them for them? For they
are not themselves admitted to the government, to the exercise of
public authority, or to offices of select judges, which are permitted
to those only of ancient families and large fortunes. But in a free
people, as among the Rhodians and Athenians, there is no citizen
who[308] * * *

XXXII. * * * No sooner is one man, or several, elevated by wealth and
power, than they say that * * * arise from their pride and arrogance,
when the idle and the timid give way, and bow down to the insolence of
riches. But if the people knew how to maintain its rights, then they
say that nothing could be more glorious and prosperous than democracy;
inasmuch as they themselves would be the sovereign dispensers of laws,
judgments, war, peace, public treaties, and, finally, of the fortune
and life of each individual citizen; and this condition of things is
the only one which, in their opinion, can be really called a
commonwealth, that is to say, a constitution of the people. It is on
this principle that, according to them, a people often vindicates its
liberty from the domination of kings and nobles; while, on the other
hand, kings are not sought for among free peoples, nor are the power
and wealth of aristocracies. They deny, moreover, that it is fair to
reject this general constitution of freemen, on account of the vices of
the unbridled populace; but that if the people be united and inclined,
and directs all its efforts to the safety and freedom of the community,
nothing can be stronger or more unchangeable; and they assert that this
necessary union is easily obtained in a republic so constituted that
the good of all classes is the same; while the conflicting interests
that prevail in other constitutions inevitably produce dissensions;
therefore, say they, when the senate had the ascendency, the republic
h