which at this time are become far worse in these western parts,
except Venice, which, escaping the hands of the barbarians by
virtue of its impregnable situation, has had its eye fixed upon
ancient prudence, and is attained to a perfection even beyond the
copy.

Relation being had to these two times, government (to define
it de jure, or according to ancient prudence) is an art whereby a
civil society of men is instituted and preserved upon the
foundation of common right or interest; or, to follow Aristotle
and Livy, it is the empire of laws, and not of men.

And government (to define it de facto, or according to modern
prudence) is an art whereby some man, or some few men, subject a
city or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private
interest; which, because the laws in such cases are made
according to the interest of a man, or of some few families, may
be said to be the empire of men, and not of laws.

The former kind is that which Machiavel (whose books are
neglected) is the only politician that has gone about to
retrieve; and that Leviathan (who would have his book imposed
upon the universities) goes about to destroy. For "it is," says
he, "another error of Aristotle's politics that in a well-ordered
commonwealth, not men should govern, but the laws. What man that
has his natural senses, though he can neither write nor read,
does not find himself governed by them he fears, and believes can
kill or hurt him when he obeys not? or, who believes that the law
can hurt him, which is but words and paper, without the hands and
swords of men?" I confess that the magistrate upon his bench is