scurvy, and at last he became insane.
When he had been made a complete wreck in body and in -mind,
his gracious Majesty restored Harrington to his family. He never
recovered health, but still occupied himself much with his pen,
writing, among other things, a serious argument to prove that they
were themselves mad who thought him so.
In those last days of his shattered life James Harrington married an
old friend of the family, a witty lady, daughter of Sir Marmaduke
Dorrell, of Buckinghamshire. Gout was added to his troubles ;
then lie was palsied ; and he died at Westminster, at the age of
sixty-six, on September 11, 1677. He was buried in St. Margaret's
Church, by the grave of Sir Walter Raleigh, on the south side of
the altar.
H. M.
OCEANA
Part I
THE PRELIMINARIES
Showing the Principles of Government
JANOTTI, the most excellent describer of the Commonwealth of
Venice, divides the whole series of government into two times or
periods: the one ending with the liberty of Rome, which was the
course or empire, as I may call it, of ancient prudence, first
discovered to mankind by God himself in the fabric of the
commonwealth of Israel, and afterward picked out of his footsteps
in nature, and unanimously followed by the Greeks and Romans; the
other beginning with the arms of Caesar, which, extinguishing
liberty, were the transition of ancient into modern prudence,
introduced by those inundations of Huns, Goths, Vandals,
Lombards, Saxons, which, breaking the Roman Empire, deformed the
whole face of the world with those ill-features of government,
which at this time are become far worse in these western parts,
except Venice, which, escaping the hands of the barbarians by
virtue of its impregnable situation, has had its eye fixed upon
ancient prudence, and is attained to a perfection even beyond the
copy.
Relation being had to these two times, government (to define
it de jure, or according to ancient prudence) is an art whereby a
civil society of men is instituted and preserved upon the
foundation of common right or interest; or, to follow Aristotle
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