aristocratic form of government cannot flourish:
for it is reasonable to conclude, that those who bought
their places should generally make an advantage of
what they laid out their money for; as it is absurd
to suppose, that if a man of probity who is poor should
be desirous of gaining something, a bad man should
not endeavour to do the same, especially to reimburse
himself; for which reason the magistracy should be
formed of those who are most able to support an aristocracy.
It would have been better for the legislature to have
passed over the poverty of men of merit, and only
to have taken care to have ensured them sufficient
leisure, when in office, to attend to public affairs.
It seems also improper, that one person should execute
several offices, which was approved of at Carthage;
for one business is best done by one person; and it
is the duty of the legislator to look to this, and
not make the same person a musician and a shoemaker:
so that where the state is not small it is more politic
and more popular to admit many persons to have a share
in the government; for, as I just now said, it is
not only more usual, but everything is better and
sooner done, when one thing only is allotted to one
person: and this is evident both in the army
and navy, where almost every one, in his turn, both
commands and is under command. But as their government
inclines to an oligarchy, they avoid the ill effects
of it by always appointing some of the popular party
to the government of cities to make their fortunes.
Thus they consult this fault in their constitution
and render it stable; but this is depending on chance;
whereas the legislator ought to frame his government,
that there the no room for insurrections. But
now, if there should be any general calamity, and
the people should revolt from their rulers, there is
no remedy for reducing them to obedience by the laws.
And these are the particulars of the Lacedaemonian,
the Cretan, and the Carthaginian governments which
seem worthy of commendation.
Some of those persons who have written upon government
had never any share in public affairs, but always
led a private life. Everything worthy of notice
in their works we have already spoke to. Others
were legislators, some in their own cities, others
were employed in regulating the governments of foreign
states. Some of them only composed a body of
laws; others formed the constitution also, as Lycurgus;
and Solon, who did both. The Lacedaemonians have
been already mentioned. Some persons think that
Solon was an excellent legislator, who could dissolve
a pure oligarchy, and save the people from that slavery
which hung over them, and establish the ancient democratic
form of government in his country; wherein every part
of it was so framed as to be well adapted to the whole.
In the senate of Areopagus an oligarchy was preserved;
by the manner of electing their [1274a] magistrates,
an aristocracy; and in their courts of justice, a
democracy.
