And we shall be able more easily to understand this if we reflect, that
when we say, that a man can do what he will with his own, this authority
must be limited not only by the power of the agent, but by the capacity
of the object. If, for instance, I say that I can rightfully do what I
will with this table, I do not certainly mean, that I have the right to
make it eat grass. So, too, though we say, that men depend not on
themselves, but on the commonwealth, we do not mean, that men lose their
human nature and put on another; nor yet that the commonwealth has the
right to make men wish for this or that, or (what is just as impossible)
regard with honour things which excite ridicule or disgust. But it is
implied, that there are certain intervening circumstances, which
supposed, one likewise supposes the reverence and fear of the subjects
towards the commonwealth, and which abstracted, one makes abstraction
likewise of that fear and reverence, and therewith of the commonwealth
itself. The commonwealth, then, to maintain its independence, is bound
to preserve the causes of fear and reverence, otherwise it ceases to be
a commonwealth. For the person or persons that hold dominion, can no
more combine with the keeping up of majesty the running with harlots
drunk or naked about the streets, or the performances of a stage-player,
or the open violation or contempt of laws passed by themselves, than
they can combine existence with non-existence.
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