k, but he is
mistaken--for the majority will always consist of those of the first
rank, and the most considerable people; and for this reason, that
many of the commonalty not being obliged to it, will not attend the
elections. From hence it is evident, that such a state will not consist
of a democracy and a monarchy, and this will be further proved by
what we shall say when we come particularly to consider this form of
government.

There will also great danger arise from the manner of electing the
senate, when those who are elected themselves are afterwards to elect
others; for by this means, if a certain number choose to combine
together, though not very considerable, the election will always fall
according to their pleasure. Such are the things which Plato proposes
concerning government in his book of Laws.

CHAPTER VII

There are also some other forms of government, which have been proposed
either by private persons, or philosophers, or politicians, all of which
come much nearer to those which have been really established, or now
exist, than these two of Plato's; for neither have they introduced the
innovation of a community of wives and children, and public tables for
the women, but have been contented to set out with establishing such
rules as are absolutely necessary.

There are some persons who think, that the first object of government
should be to regulate well everything relating to private property;
for they say, that a neglect herein is the source of all seditions
whatsoever. For this reason, Phaleas the Chalcedonian first proposed,
that the fortunes of the citizens should be equal, which he thought was
not difficult to accomplish when a community was first settled, but
that it was a work of greater difficulty in one that had been long
established; but yet that it might be effected, and an equality of
circumstances introduced by these means, that the rich should give
marriage portions, but never receive any, while the poor should always
receive, but never give.

But Plato, in his treatise of Laws, thinks that a difference in
circumstances should be permitted to a certain degree; but that no
citizen should be allowed to possess more than five times as much as the
lowest census, as we have already mentioned. But legislators who
would establish this principle are apt to overlook what they ought to
consider; that while they regulate the quantity of provisions which each
individual shall possess, t