side, beginning also at the upper or at the
lower ends of the same, according to the lot whereby they are called;
for which end the benches are open, and ascended at either end with easy
stairs and large passages.

The rest of the ballot is conformable to that of the tribe; the censors
of the house sitting at the side urn, and the youngest magistrate of
the signory at the middle, the urns being placed before the throne, and
prepared according to the number of the magistrates to be at that time
chosen by the rules already given to the censors of the tribes. But
before the benches of the knights on either side stands one being
shorter, and at the upper end of this sit the two tribunes of the horse.
At the upper end of the other the two tribunes of the foot in their
arms, the rest of the benches being covered by the judges of the land in
their robes. But these magistrates have no suffrage, nor the tribunes,
though they derive their presence in the Senate from the Romans, nor
the judges, though they derive theirs from the ancient Senate of Oceana.
Every Monday this assembly sits of course; at other times, if there be
occasion, any magistrate of the house, by giving order for the bell, or
by his lictor or ensign-bearer, calls a senate. And every magistrate
or knight during his session has the title, place, and honor of a duke,
earl, baron, or knight respectively And every one that has borne the
same magistracy by his third session, has his respective place and title
during the term of his life, which is all the honor conferred by this
commonwealth, except upon the master of the ceremonies, the master of
the horse, and the king of the heralds, who are knights by their places.
And thus you have the face of the Senate, in which there is scarce any
feature that is not Roman or Venetian; nor do the horns of the crescent
extend themselves much unlike those of the Sanhedrim, on either hand of
the prince, and of the father of that Senate. But upon beauty, in which
every man has his fancy, we will not otherwise philosophize than to
remember that there is something more than decency in the robe of
a judge, that would not be well spared from the bench; and that the
gravest magistrate to whom you can commit the sword of justice, will
find a quickness in the spurs of honor, which, if they be not laid to
virtue, will lay themselves to that which may rout a commonwealth.

To come from the face of the Senate to the constitution and use of