established governments want most
looking after. A number of citizens is the preservation of a democracy;
for these are opposed to those rights which are founded in rank: on
the contrary, the preservation of an oligarchy depends upon the due
regulation of the different orders in the society.

CHAPTER VII

As the greater part of the community are divided into four sorts of
people; husbandmen, mechanics, traders, and hired servants; and as those
who are employed in war may likewise be divided into four; the horsemen,
the heavy-armed soldier, the light-armed, and the sailor, where the
nature of the country can admit a great number of horse; there a
powerful oligarchy may be easily established: for the safety of the
inhabitants depends upon a force of that sort; but those who can support
the expense of horsemen must be persons of some considerable fortune.
Where the troops are chiefly heavy-armed, there an oligarchy, inferior
in power to the other, may be established; for the heavy-armed are
rather made up of men of substance than the poor: but the light-armed
and the sailors always contribute to support a democracy: but where the
number of these is very great and a sedition arises, the other parts of
the community fight at a disadvantage; but a remedy for this evil is
to be learned from skilful generals, who always mix a proper number of
light-armed soldiers with their horse and heavy-armed: for it is with
those that the populace get the better of the men of fortune in an
insurrection; for these being lighter are easily a match for the horse
and the heavy-armed: so that for an oligarchy to form a body of troops
from these is to form it against itself: but as a city is composed of
persons of different ages, some young and some old, the fathers should
teach their sons, while they were very young, a light and easy exercise;
but, when they are grown up, they should be perfect in every warlike
exercise. Now, the admission of the people to any share in the
government should either be (as I said before) regulated by a census, or
else, as at Thebes, allowed to those who for a certain time have ceased
from any mechanic employment, or as at Massalia, where they are chosen
according to their worth, whether citizens or foreigners. With respect
to the magistrates of the highest rank which it may be necessary to
have in a state, the services they are bound to do the public should be
expressly laid down, to prevent the common pe