the most equal, though it has not, in my judgment, arrived at the
full perfection of equality; both because her laws supplying the
defect of an agrarian are not so clear nor effectual at the
foundation, nor her superstructures, by the virtue of her ballot
or rotation, exactly librated; in regard that through the paucity
of her citizens her greater magistracies are continually wheeled
through a few hands, as is confessed by Janotti, where he says,
that if a gentleman comes once to be Savio di terra ferma, it
seldom happens that he fails from thenceforward to be adorned
with some one of the greater magistracies, as Savi di mare, Savi
di terra ferma, Savi Grandi, counsellors, those of the
decemvirate or dictatorian council, the aurogatori, or censors,
which require no vacation or interval. Wherefore if this in
Venice, or that in Lacedaemon, where the kings were hereditary,
and the Senators (though elected by the people) for life, cause
no inequality (which is hard to be conceived) in a commonwealth
for preservation, or such a one as consists of a few citizens;
yet is it manifest that it would cause a very great one in a
commonwealth for increase, or consisting of the many, which, by
engrossing the magistracies in a few hands, would be obstructed
in their rotation.
But there be who say (and think it a strong objection) that,
let a commonwealth be as equal as you can imagine, two or three
men when all is done will govern it; and there is that in it
which, notwithstanding the pretended sufficiency of a popular
State, amounts to a plain confession of the imbecility of that
policy, and of the prerogative of monarchy; forasmuch as popular
governments in difficult cases have had recourse to dictatorian
power, as in Rome.
To which I answer, that as truth is a spark to which
objections are like bellows, so in this respect our commonwealth
shines; for the eminence acquired by suffrage of the people in a
commonwealth, especially if it be popular and equal, can be
ascended by no other steps than the universal acknowledgment of
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