CHAPTER XIII
It seems, then, requisite for the establishment of a state, that all,
or at least many of these particulars should be well canvassed and
inquired into; and that virtue and education may most justly claim the
right of being considered as the necessary means of making the
citizens happy, as we have already said. As those who are equal in one
particular are not therefore equal in all, and those who are unequal
in one particular are not therefore unequal in all, it follows that
all those governments which are established upon a principle which
supposes they are, are erroneous.
We have already said, that all the members of the community will
dispute with each other for the offices of the state; and in some
particulars justly, but not so in general; the rich, for instance,
because they have the greatest landed property, and the ultimate right
to the soil is vested in the community; and also because their
fidelity is in general most to be depended on. The freemen and men of
family will dispute the point with each other, as nearly on an
equality; for these latter have a right to a higher regard as citizens
than obscure persons, for honourable descent is everywhere of great
esteem: nor is it an improper conclusion, that the descendants of men
of worth will be men of worth themselves; for noble birth is the
fountain of virtue to men of family: for the same reason also we
justly say, that virtue has a right to put in her pretensions.
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