Sinossi
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1799 edition. Excerpt: ...and IX.; and I will only add here, that it is chiefly the governor who makes the government good or bad;, for it belongs to him to form the people, and to make them fuch as they ought to be. But, as 1 have faid in the Ath volume above quoted, it is Nature chiefly, that qualifies a man to be a governor; for, let his education be what it will, if by nature he be not fitted to govern, he never will be a good governor. Now, it is from our race that we derive our nature, and, among other qualities, a virtuous difpoiition; and the inheritance of fuch qualities is what we call, or fhould call, Nobility, and accordingly Ariftotle has told us that Nobility is the virtue of Page 177. of the race. We are, therefore, to confider nobility, not as a thing merely of human inftitution, but as having a foundation in nature. Nor is it peculiar to our fpecies; for there is a diftinction of races in all the animals that we are acquainted with, fuch as horfes, dogs, and oxen; and, indeed, if there were no fuch diftinclion among men, civil fociety could never be properly conftituted, nor anfwer the ends which God and Nature have propofed by it: For, if all men were equally fit to govern, there would not be that proper fubordi-nation of men which government requires; and if they were all unfit to govern, there could be no good government among them, nor indeed any thing that deferves the name of government. In this way, as I have fhown in the chapter above quoted, were governed the fineft ftates of which we read in antient hiftory, particularly the heroic ftates of Greece, fuch as that of Sparta, and the ftate of Rome as long as the diftinction of Patricians and Plebeians was preferved, and the two races not mixed together, nor allowed to enjoy promifcuoufly...
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