Pagina 349 di 1391

'Glorious, indeed; but what is to follow?' The ruin of oligarchy

is the ruin of democracy; for there is a law of contraries; the

excess of freedom passes into the excess of slavery, and the

greater the freedom the greater the slavery. You will remember

that in the oligarchy were found two classes-rogues and paupers,

whom we compared to drones with and without stings. These two

classes are to the State what phlegm and bile are to the human

body; and the State-physician, or legislator, must get rid of

them, just as the bee-master keeps the drones out of the hive.

Now in a democracy, too, there are drones, but they are more

numerous and more dangerous than in the oligarchy; there they are

inert and unpractised, here they are full of life and animation;

and the keener sort speak and act, while the others buzz about

the bema and prevent their opponents from being heard.