For they make colleagues of those who are the
friends of themselves and their governments. They must be friends of
the monarch and of his government; if not his friends, they will not
do what he wants; but friendship implies likeness and equality; and,
therefore, if he thinks that his friends ought to rule, he must
think that those who are equal to himself and like himself ought to
rule equally with himself. These are the principal controversies
relating to monarchy.
XVII
But may not all this be true in some cases and not in others? for
there is by nature both a justice and an advantage appropriate to
the rule of a master, another to kingly rule, another to
constitutional rule; but there is none naturally appropriate to
tyranny, or to any other perverted form of government; for these
come into being contrary to nature. Now, to judge at least from what
has been said, it is manifest that, where men are alike and equal,
it is neither expedient nor just that one man should be lord of all,
whether there are laws, or whether there are no laws, but he himself
is in the place of law. Neither should a good man be lord over good
men, nor a bad man over bad; nor, even if he excels in virtue,
should he have a right to rule, unless in a particular case, at
which I have already hinted, and to which I will once more recur.
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