‘The Preliminaries, showing the Principles of Government’ Giannout, the most excellent describer of the commonwealth of Venice, disideth the whole series of government into ¢wo Himes or Periods.’ The one ending with the liberty of Rome, which was the ‘course or empire, 2s may clit, of ancient prudence, fist discovered ‘unto mankind by God himself in the fabric of the commonwealth of Israel, and afierward picked out of his footsteps in nature and ‘unanimously followed by the Greeks and Romans, ‘The other begin- ning with the arms of Caesar which, extinguishing liberty, were the transition of ancient into modern prudence, introduced by those inundations of Huns, Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Saxons. which, breaking the Roman Empire, defermed the whole face of the world with these ill features of government which at this time are become far worse in these western pars, except Venice which, escaping the bands of the barbarians by virtue of her impregnable situation, bath bad her eye fixed upon ancient prudence and is attained 10 a perfec tion even beyond her copy Relation being had unto these two times government (to define it de jure or according w ancient prudence) is an art whereby a civil society of men is instituted and preserved upon the foundation of common right or interest, oF (to follow Aristo and Li empire of laws and not of men, "te Peirce epi em peo. pars orcas of which he The Preliminaries, showing Principles of Government ‘And government (to define it de facio or according unto modern prudence) is an art whereby some man, or some few men, subject city oF a nation, and rule it aecording unto his o their private intrest; which, because the laws in such cases are made according to the iuerest of « man or of some fe families, may be sai tobe the empire cof men and not of laws. “The former kin is that which Machiavel (whose books are neglee- ted) isthe only policéan that hath gone about to retieve, and that Leviathan (who would have his book imposed upon the universities)? s0es about to destoy fr itis (saith he) anesher error of Aristotle's Polit, that in a well-ordered com= ‘monwealth, not men should govern but the laws. What man that hath his natural senses, hough be can nether write nor read, ‘doesnot find himself governed by them he fears and believes can Kill or hurt him when te obeyeth now Or who believes that the law can hurt him, which i but words and paper without the hands sand swords of men’? Teonfess tht maistratus et lex armata; the magistrate upon his bench i that unto the law, which 2 gunner upon his platform is unto his ‘cannon. Nevertheless I should not dare to argue with 2 man of any ingenuity after this manner. An whole army, though they can neither ‘write nor read, are not afraid of a platform, which they know is but certh or stone, nor ofa cannon which, without s hand to give fire unto itis but cold iron; therefore a whole army is afraid of one man. But of this kind isthe ratiocination of Leviathan (as I shall show in divers places that come in my way) throughout his whole pois, or worse; as where he saith of Aristotle and of Cicero, ofthe Greeks and of the Romans, who lived under popular states, that they “derived these rights not from the principles of nature, but transcribed them into their books out ofthe practice oftheir own commonwealth, as gram- ‘murians describe the rules of language out of poets Which is as if a ‘man should tell famous Harvey that he transeribed his circulation of the blood not ou of the principles of nature, but out ofthe anatomy of {his or that bods "Hubber, Lesh, ‘A Reve and Canlaon (Tock o, Cambridge Tons i the His of Pais Thong, tgp. 127 abo part, eh. so (Tah p23). Hak ren Hebe’ vinden hell upon ths ping cp. 38, 32, ow {Laan 40h 479 “Lesatan 10% (Tack, pp 4p-go. The colin words should veal ut the ‘ati the ime; ere ls eto te poems of Heme and Ving 9