acting according to the dictates of reason, as Seneca says, "violenta
imperia nemo continuit diu." (52) No one can long retain a tyrant's sway.

(16:53) In a democracy, irrational commands are still less to be feared: for
it is almost impossible that the majority of a people, especially if it be a
large one, should agree in an irrational design: and, moreover, the basis
and aim of a democracy is to avoid the desires as irrational, and to bring
men as far as possible under the control of reason, so that they may live in
peace and harmony: if this basis be removed the whole fabric falls to ruin.

(16:54) Such being the ends in view for the sovereign power, the duty of
subjects is, as I have said, to obey its commands, and to recognize no right
save that which it sanctions.

[16:4] (55) It will, perhaps, be thought that we are turning subjects into
slaves: for slaves obey commands and free men live as they like; but this
idea is based on a misconception, for the true slave is he who is led away
by his pleasures and can neither see what is good for him nor act
accordingly: he alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire
guidance of reason.

(16:56) Action in obedience to orders does take away freedom in a certain
sense, but it does not, therefore, make a man a slave, all depends on the
object of the action. (57) If the object of the action be the good of the
state, and not the good of the agent, the latter is a slave and does
himself no good: but in a state or kingdom where the weal of the whole
people, and not that of the ruler, is the supreme law, obedience to the
sovereign power does not make a man a slave, of no use to himself, but a
subject. (58) Therefore, that state is the freest whose laws are founded on
sound reason, so that every member of it may, if he will, be free [Endnote