The Commonwealth of Oceana | Page 7

(to define it de facto, or according to modern
prudence) is an art whereby some man, or some few men, subject a city
or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private interest; which,
because the laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a
man, or of some few families, may be said to be the empire of men, and
not of laws.
The former kind is that which Machiavel (whose books are neglected)
is the only politician that has gone about to retrieve; and that Leviathan
(who would have his book imposed upon the universities) goes about to
destroy. For "it is," says he, "another error of Aristotle's politics that in
a well-ordered commonwealth, not men should govern, but the laws.
What man that has his natural senses, though he can neither write nor
read, does not find himself governed by them he fears, and believes can
kill or hurt him when he obeys not? or, who believes that the law can
hurt him, which is but words and paper, without the hands and swords
of men?" I confess that the magistrate upon his bench is that to the law
which a gunner upon his platform is to his cannon. Nevertheless, I
should not dare to argue with a man of any ingenuity after this manner.
A whole army, though they can neither write nor read, are not afraid of
a platform, which they know is but earth or stone; nor of a cannon,
which, without a hand to give fire to it, is but cold iron; therefore a
whole army is afraid of one man. But of this kind is the ratiocination of
Leviathan, as I shall show in divers places that come in my way,
throughout his whole politics, or worse; as where he says, "of Aristotle
and of Cicero, of the Greeks, and of the Romans, who lived under
popular States, that they derived those rights, not from the principles of
nature, but transcribed them into their books out of the practice of their
own commonwealths, as grammarians describe the rules of language
out of poets." Which is as if a man should tell famous Harvey that he
transcribed his circulation of the blood, not out of the principles of
nature, but out of the anatomy of this or that body.

To go on therefore with his preliminary discourse, I shall divide it,
according to the two definitions of government relating to Janotti's two
times, in two parts: the first, treating of the principles of government in
general, and according to the ancients; the second, treating of the late
governments of Oceana in particular, and in that of modern prudence.
Government, according to the ancients, and their learned disciple
Machiavel, the only politician of later ages, is of three kinds: the
government of one man, or of the better sort, or of the whole people;
which, by their more learned names, are called monarchy, aristocracy,
and democracy. These they hold, through their proneness to degenerate,
to be all evil. For whereas they that govern should govern according to
reason, if they govern according to passion they do that which they
should not do. Wherefore, as reason and passion are two things, so
government by reason is one thing, and the corruption of government
by passion is another thing, but not always another government: as a
body that is alive is one thing, and a body that is dead is another thing,
but not always another creature, though the corruption of one comes at
length to be the generation of another. The corruption then of monarchy
is called tyranny; that of aristocracy, oligarchy and that of democracy,
anarchy. But legislators, having found these three governments at the
best to be naught, have invented another, consisting of a mixture of
them all, which only is good. This is the doctrine of the ancients.
But Leviathan is positive that they are all deceived, and that there is no
other government in nature than one of the three; as also that the flesh
of them cannot stink, the names of their corruptions being but the
names of men's fancies, which will be understood when we are shown
which of them was Senatus Populusque Romanus.
To go my own way, and yet to follow the ancients, the principles of
government are twofold: internal, or the goods of the mind; and
external, or the goods of fortune. The goods of the mind are natural or
acquired virtues, as wisdom, prudence, and courage, etc. The goods of
fortune are riches. There be goods also of the body, as health, beauty,
strength; but these are not to be brought into account upon this score,
because if a man or an army acquires victory or empire, it is more