Governments are sometimes preserved not only by
having the means of their corruption at a great distance, but also by
its being very near them; for those who are alarmed at some impending
evil keep a stricter hand over the state; for which reason it is
necessary for those who have the guardianship of the constitution to
be able to awaken the fears of the people, that they may preserve it,
and not like a night-guard to be remiss in protecting the state, but
to make the distant danger appear at hand. Great care ought also to be
used to endeavour to restrain the quarrels and disputes of the nobles
by laws, as well as to prevent those who are not already engaged in
them from taking a part therein; for to perceive an evil at its very
first approach is not the lot of every one, but of the politician. To
prevent any alteration taking place in an oligarchy or free state on
account of the census, if that happens to continue the same while the
quantity of money is increased, it will be useful to take a general
account of the whole amount of it in former times, to compare it with
the present, and to do this every year in those cities where the
census is yearly, [1308b] in larger communities once in three or five
years; and if the whole should be found much larger or much less than
it was at the time when the census was first established in the state,
let there be a law either to extend or contract it, doing both these
according to its increase or decrease; if it increases making the
census larger, if it decreases smaller: and if this latter is not done
in oligarchies and free states, you will have a dynasty arise in the
one, an oligarchy in the other: if the former is not, free states will
be changed into democracies, and oligarchies into free states or
democracies.
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