Besides which, the tribunes' authority was supported against
the patricians by the favour of the commons. and whenever they convoked
the commons, it looked as if they were raising a sedition rather than
assembling a council. Which inconveniences have certainly no place in
the dominion which we have described in the last two chapters.
4. However, this authority of the syndics will only be able to secure
the preservation of the form of the dominion, and thus to prevent the
laws from being broken, or anyone from gaining by transgressing; but
will by no means suffice to prevent the growth of vices, which cannot be
forbidden by law, such as those into which men fall from excess of
leisure, and from which the ruin of a dominion not uncommonly follows.
For men in time of peace lay aside fear, and gradually from being fierce
savages become civilized or humane, and from being humane become soft
and sluggish, and seek to excel one another not in virtue, but in
ostentation and luxury. And hence they begin to put off their native
manners and to put on foreign ones, that is, to become slaves.
5. To avoid these evils many have tried to establish sumptuary laws; but
in vain. For all laws which can be broken without any injury to another,
are counted but a laughing-stock, and are so far from bridling the
desires and lusts of men, that on the contrary they stimulate them. For
"we are ever eager for forbidden fruit, and desire what is denied.
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