de, the
commonwealth can never be equal. But in a commonwealth consisting of
a single council, there is no other to choose than that which divided;
whence it is, that such a council fails not to scramble--that is, to
be factious, there being no other dividing of the cake in that case but
among themselves.

Nor is there any remedy but to have another council to choose. The
wisdom of the few may be the light of mankind; but the interest of
the few is not the profit of mankind nor of a commonwealth. Wherefore,
seeing we have granted interest to be reason, they must not choose lest
it put out their light. But as the council dividing consists of the
wisdom of the commonwealth, so the assembly or council choosing should
consist of the interest of the commonwealth: as the wisdom of the
commonwealth is in the aristocracy, so the interest of the commonwealth
is in the whole body of the people. And whereas this, in case the
commonwealth consist of a whole nation, is too unwieldy a body to be
assembled, this council is to consist of such a representative as may be
equal, and so constituted, as can never contract any other interest
than that of the whole people; the manner whereof, being such as is best
shown by exemplification, I remit to the model. But in the present case,
the six dividing, and the fourteen choosing, must of necessity take in
the whole interest of the twenty.

Dividing and choosing, in the language of a commonwealth, is debating
and resolving; and whatsoever, upon debate of the senate, is proposed
to the people, and resolved by them, is enacted by the authority of the
fathers, and by the power of the people, which concurring, make a law.

But the law being made, says Leviathan, "is but words and paper without
the hands and swords of men;" wherefore as these two orders of a
commonwealth, namely, the senate and the people, are legislative, so of
necessity there must be a third to be executive of the laws made, and
this is the magistracy. In which order, with the rest being wrought up
by art, the commonwealth consists of "the senate proposing, the people
resolving, and the magistracy executing," whereby partaking of the
aristocracy as in the senate, of the democracy as in the people, and of
monarchy as in the magistracy, it is complete. Now there being no other
commonwealth but this in art or nature, it is no wonder if Machiavel
has shown us that the ancients held this only to be good; but it seems
strange to me