(Van den Hove,
the Dutch equivalent). He was a friend of John de Witt, and opposed to
the party of the Statholders." -- POLLOCK'S Life and Philosophy of
Spinoza, towards end of Chap. X.
4. This promise is not kept by the author, no doubt owing to his not
living to finish the work.
------------------------
CHAPTER IX.
OF ARISTOCRACY. CONTINUATION.
HITHERTO we have considered an aristocracy, so far as it takes its name
from one city, which is the head of the whole dominion. It is now time
to treat of that, which is in the hands of more than one city, and which
I think preferable to the former. But that we may notice its difference
and its superiority, we will pass in review the foundations of dominion,
one by one, rejecting those foundations, which are unsuited to the
present kind, and laying in their place others for it to rest upon.
2. The cities, then, which enjoy the right of citizenship, must be so
built and fortified, that, on the one hand, each city by itself may be
unable to subsist without the rest, and that yet, on the other hand, it
cannot desert the rest without great harm to the whole dominion. For
thus they will always remain united. But cities, which are so
constituted, that they can neither maintain themselves, nor be dangerous
to the rest, are clearly not independent, but absolutely subject to the
rest.
3. But the contents of the ninth and tenth sections of the last chapter
are deduced from the general nature of aristocracy, as are also the
proportion between the numbers of the patricians and the multitude, and
the proper age and condition of those that are to be made patricians; so
that on these points no difference can arise, whether the dominion be in
the hands of one or more cities.
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