Pagina 686 de 1391

Not at all, my good sir, I said; I am trying to understand them;

and I wish that you would be a little clearer.

Well, he said, have you never heard that forms of government

differ; there are tyrannies, and there are democracies, and there

are aristocracies?

Yes, I know.

And the government is the ruling power in each state?

Certainly.

And the different forms of government make laws democratical,

aristocratical, tyrannical, with a view to their several

interests; and these laws, which are made by them for their own

interests, are the justice which they deliver to their subjects,

and him who transgresses them they punish as a breaker of the

law, and unjust. And that is what I mean when I say that in all

states there is the same principle of justice, which is the

interest of the government; and as the government must be

supposed to have power, the only reasonable conclusion is, that

everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the

interest of the stronger.