certainly that is the voice of Theseus, having gathered his
scattered Athenians into one city. This freeborn nation lives not
upon the dole or bounty of one man, but distributing her annual
magistracies and honors with her own hand, is herself King People
-- (At which the orator was awhile interrupted with shouts, but
at length proceeded.) is it grave Lacedaemon in her armed tribe,
divided by her oboe and her mora, which appears to chide me that
I teach the people to talk, or conceive such language as is
dressed like a woman, to be a fit usher of the joys of liberty
into the hearts of men? is it Rome in her victorious arms (for so
she held her concio or congregation) that congratulates with us,
for finding out that which she could not hit on, and binding up
her Comitia curiata, centuriata, and tributa, in one inviolable
league of union? Or is it the great council of incomparable
Venice, bowling forth by the selfsame ballot her immortal
commonwealth? For, neither by reason nor by experience is it
impossible that a commonwealth should be immortal; seeing the
people being the materials, never die; and the form, which is
motion, must, without opposition, be endless. The bowl which is
thrown from your hand, if there be no rub, no impediment, shall
never cease: for which cause the glorious luminaries that are the
bowls of God, were once thrown forever; and next these, those of
Venice. But certainly, my lords, whatever these great examples
may have shown us, we are the first that have shown to the world
a commonwealth established in her rise upon fifty such towers,
and so garrisoned as are the tribes of Oceana, containing 100,000
elders upon the annual list, and yet but an outguard; besides her
marching armies to be equal in the discipline, and in the number
of her youth.