'
But of all the things which I have mentioned that which most
contributes to the permanence of constitutions is the adaptation of
education to the form of government, and yet in our own day this
principle is universally neglected. The best laws, though sanctioned
by every citizen of the state, will be of no avail unless the young
are trained by habit and education in the spirit of the
constitution, if the laws are democratical, democratically or
oligarchically, if the laws are oligarchical. For there may be a
want of self-discipline in states as well as in individuals. Now, to
have been educated in the spirit of the constitution is not to perform
the actions in which oligarchs or democrats delight, but those by
which the existence of an oligarchy or of a democracy is made
possible. Whereas among ourselves the sons of the ruling class in an
oligarchy live in luxury, but the sons of the poor are hardened by
exercise and toil, and hence they are both more inclined and better
able to make a revolution. And in democracies of the more extreme type
there has arisen a false idea of freedom which is contradictory to the
true interests of the state. For two principles are characteristic
of democracy, the government of the majority and freedom. Men think
that what is just is equal; and that equality is the supremacy of
the popular will; and that freedom means the doing what a man likes.
Pages:
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238