ose virtue is law, is the same
whose empire is authority, and whose authority is empire.

Again, if the liberty of a man consists in the empire of his reason, the
absence whereof would betray him to the bondage of his passions, then
the liberty of a commonwealth consists in the empire of her laws, the
absence whereof would betray her to the lust of tyrants. And these I
conceive to be the principles upon which Aristotle and Livy (injuriously
accused by Leviathan for not writing out of nature) have grounded their
assertion, "that a commonwealth is an empire of laws and not of men."
But they must not carry it so. "For," says he, "the liberty whereof
there is so frequent and honorable mention in the histories and
philosophy of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and the writings and
discourses of those that from them have received all their learning in
the politics, is not the liberty of particular men, but the liberty
of the commonwealth." He might as well have said that the estates of
particular men in a commonwealth are not the riches of particular men,
but the riches of the commonwealth; for equality of estates causes
equality of power, and equality of power is the liberty, not only of the
commonwealth, but of every man.

But sure a man would never be thus irreverent with the greatest authors,
and positive against all antiquity without some certain demonstration of
truth--and what is it? Why, "there is written on the turrets of the city
of Lucca in great characters at this day the word LIBERTAS; yet no man
can thence infer that a particular man has more liberty or immunity from
the service of the commonwealth there than in Constantinople. Whether
a commonwealth be monarchical or popular the freedom is the same." The
mountain has brought forth, and we have a little equivocation! For to
say that a Lucchese has no more liberty or immunity from the laws of
Lucca than a Turk has from those of Constantinople; and to say that a
Lucchese has no more liberty or immunity by the laws of Lucca, than a
Turk has by those of Constantinople, are pretty different speeches. The
first may be said of all governments alike; the second scarce of any
two; much less of these, seeing it is known that, whereas the greatest
Bashaw is a tenant, as well of his head as of his estate, at the will
of his lord, the meanest Lucchese that has land is a freeholder of
both, and not to be controlled but by the law, and that framed by every
private man to no oth