6. A dominion then, whose well-being depends on any man's good faith,
and whose affairs cannot be properly administered, unless those who are
engaged in them will act honestly, will be very unstable. On the
contrary, to insure its permanence, its public affairs should be so
ordered, that those who administer them, whether guided by reason or
passion, cannot be led to act treacherously or basely. Nor does it
matter to the security of a dominion, in what spirit men are led to
rightly administer its affairs. For liberality of spirit, or courage, is
a private virtue; but the virtue of a state is its security.
7. Lastly, inasmuch as all men, whether barbarous or civilized,
everywhere frame customs, and form some kind of civil state, we must
not, therefore, look to proofs of reason for the causes and natural
bases of dominion, but derive them from the general nature or position
of mankind, as I mean to do in the next chapter.
------
1. Ethics, iv. 4, Coroll. iii. 31, note; 32, note.
2. Ibid., v. 42, note.
------------------------
CHAPTER II.
OF NATURAL RIGHT.
IN our Theologico-Political Treatise we have treated of natural and
civil right, [1] and in our Ethics have explained the nature of
wrong-doing, merit, justice, injustice, [2] and lastly, of human
liberty. [3] Yet, lest the readers of the present treatise should have
to seek elsewhere those points, which especially concern it, I have
determined to explain them here again, and give a deductive proof of
them.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25