ce in them that about
a third will be wiser, or at least less foolish than all the rest; these
upon acquaintance, though it be but small, will be discovered, and, as
stags that have the largest heads, lead the herd; for while the six,
discoursing and arguing one with another, show the eminence of their
parts, the fourteen discover things that they never thought on; or are
cleared in divers truths which had formerly perplexed them. Wherefore,
in matter of common concernment, difficulty, or danger, they hang upon
their lips, as children upon their fathers; and the influence thus
acquired by the six, the eminence of whose parts are found to be a stay
and comfort to the fourteen, is the authority of the fathers. Wherefore
this can be no other than a natural aristocracy diffused by God
throughout the whole body of mankind to this end and purpose; and
therefore such as the people have not only a natural but a positive
obligation to make use of as their guides; as where the people of Israel
are commanded to "take wise men, and understanding, and known among
their tribes, to be made rulers over them." The six then approved of,
as in the present case, are the senate, not by hereditary right, or in
regard of the greatness of their estates only, which would tend to
such power as might force or draw the people, but by election for their
excellent parts, which tends to the advancement of the influence of
their virtue or authority that leads the people. Wherefore the office of
the senate is not to be commanders, but counsellors, of the people; and
that which is proper to counsellors is first to debate, and afterward
to give advice in the business whereupon they have debated, whence the
decrees of the senate are never laws, nor so called; and these being
maturely framed, it is their duty to propose in the case to the people.
Wherefore the senate is no more than the debate of the commonwealth. But
to debate is to discern or put a difference between things that, being
alike, are not the same; or it is separating and weighing this reason
against that, and that reason against this, which is dividing.

The senate then having divided, who shall choose? Ask the girls: for if
she that divided must have chosen also, it had been little worse for
the other in case she had not divided at all, but kept the whole cake to
herself, in regard that being to choose, too, she divided accordingly.
Wherefore if the senate have any further power than to divi