The reason, then, why in
practice aristocracy is not absolute, is that the multitude is a cause
of fear to the rulers, and therefore succeeds in retaining for itself
some liberty, which it asserts and holds as its own, if not by an
express law, yet on a tacit understanding.
5. And thus it is manifest that this kind of dominion will be in the
best possible condition, if its institutions are such that it most
nearly approaches the absolute -- that is, that the multitude is as
little as possible a cause of fear, and retains no liberty, but such as
must necessarily be assigned it by the law of the dominion itself, and
is therefore not so much a right of the multitude as of the whole
dominion, asserted and maintained by the aristocrats only as their own.
For thus practice agrees best with theory, as appears from the last
section, and is also self-evident. For we cannot doubt that the dominion
rests the less with the patricians, the more rights the commons assert
for themselves, such as those which the corporations of artisans in
Lower Germany, commonly called Guilds, generally possess.
6. But the commons need not apprehend any danger of a hateful slavery
from this form of dominion, merely because it is conferred on the
council absolutely. For the will of so large a council cannot be so much
determined by lust as by reason; because men are drawn asunder by an
evil passion, and cannot be guided, as it were, by one mind, except so
far as they desire things honourable, or that have at least an
honourable appearance.
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