Secondly, those, who boast of their ancestors' effigies and
triumphs, think they are wronged, if they are not preferred to others.
Lastly, not to mention other objections, it is certain that equality,
which once cast off the general liberty is lost, can by no means be
maintained, from the time that peculiar honours are by public law
decreed to any man renowned for his virtue.
9. After which premisses, let us now see whether dominions of this kind
can be destroyed by any cause to which blame attaches. But if any
dominion can be everlasting, that will necessarily be so, whose
constitution being once rightly instituted remains unbroken. For the
constitution is the soul of a dominion. Therefore, if it is preserved,
so is the dominion. But a constitution cannot remain unconquered, unless
it is defended alike by reason and common human passion: otherwise, if
it relies only on the help of reason, it is certainly weak and easily
overcome. Now since the fundamental constitution of both kinds of
aristocracy has been shown to agree with reason and common human
passion, we can therefore assert that these, if any kinds of dominion,
will be eternal, in other words, that they cannot be destroyed by any
cause to which blame attaches, but only by some inevitable fate.
10. But it may still be objected to us, that, although the constitution
of dominion above set forth is defended by reason and common human
passion, yet for all that it may at some time be overpowered.
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