9. And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment.

10. And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee..

15. And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand : . . .

16. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. .

2. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and all the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.

3. And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book: and all the people stood to the covenant.

70. The "Republic" of Plato. The following extracts illustrate the philosophical ideal of the Greeks rather than a definite attempt to frame a political theory:

The formation of a city is due, as I imagine, to this fact, that we are not individually independent, but have many wants. . . .

Thus it is, then, that owing to our many wants, and because each seeks the aid of others to supply his various requirements, we gather many associates and helpers into one dwelling place, and give to this joint dwelling the name of city. . .

You are doubtless all brethren, as many as inhabit the city, but the God who created you mixed gold in the composition of such of you as are qualified to rule, which gives them the highest value; while in the auxiliaries he made silver an ingredient, assigning iron and copper to the cultivators of the soil and the other workmen. Therefore, inasmuch as you are all related to one another, although your children will generally resemble their parents, yet sometimes a golden parent will produce a silver child, and a silver parent a golden child, and so on. . . . And if a child be born in their class with an alloy of copper or iron, they are to have no manner of pity upon it, but giving it the value that belongs to its nature, they are to thrust it away into the class of artisans or

agriculturists; and if again among these a child be born with any admixture of gold or silver, when they have assayed it, they are to raise it either to the class of guardians, or to that of auxiliaries :

This then, I continued, will also serve as the best standard for our governors to adopt, in regulating the size of the state, and the amount of land which they should mark off for a state of the due size, leaving the rest alone. What is the standard? he asked. The following, I conceive; so long as the city can grow without abandoning its unity, up to that point it may be allowed to grow, but not beyond it. . . .

Then it is the knowledge residing in its smallest class or section, that is to say, in the predominant and ruling body, which entitles a state, organized agreeably to nature, to be called wise as a whole; and that class whose right and duty it is to partake of the knowledge which alone of all kinds of knowledge is properly called wisdom, is naturally, as it appears, the least numerous body in the state. . .

I think that the remainder left in the state, after eliminating the qualities which we have considered, I mean temperance, and courage, and wisdom, must be that which made their entrance into it possible, and which preserves them there so long as they exist in it. Now we affirmed that the remaining quality, when three out of the four were found, would be justice.

The constitutions to which I allude . . are the following. First, we have the constitution of Crete and Sparta, which has the general voice in its favor. Second in order, as in estimation, stands oligarchy, as it is called, a commonwealth fraught with many evils. Then comes democracy, which is the adversary and successor of oligarchy; and, finally, that glorious thing, despotism, which differs from all the preceding, and constitutes the fourth and worst disease of a state. . . .

Then must we proceed to describe those inferior men, to wit, the contentious and ambitious man, answering to the Spartan constitution; and likewise the oligarchical, and the democratical, and the despotic man; in order that we may get a view of the most unjust man, and contrast him with the most just.

71. The "Politics" of Aristotle. Aristotle, basing his study on actual conditions and careful analysis, lays the foundation for political science proper:

Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. . . . And it is a characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, of just and unjust, and the association of living beings who have this sense makes a family and a state. . .

whose virtue is so pre

If, however, there be some one person . . eminent that the virtues or the political capacity of all the rest admit of no comparison with his, he can be no longer regarded as part of a state; for justice will not be done to the superior, if he is reckoned only as the equal of those who are so far inferior to him in virtue and in political capacity. . . . Hence we see that legislation is necessarily concerned only with those who are equal in birth and in power; and that for men of preeminent virtue there is no law they are themselves a law. . . Now in all states there are three elements; one class is very rich, another very poor, and a third in a mean. It is admitted that moderation and the mean are best. . . Thus it is manifest that the best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class, and that those states are likely to be well administered, in which the middle class is large. We have next to consider what means there are of preserving states in general, and also in particular cases. .

...

In all well-attempered governments there is nothing which should be more jealously maintained than the spirit of obedience to law. . .

States are preserved when their destroyers are at a distance, and sometimes also because they are near, for the fear of them makes the government keep in hand the state. . . .

It is a principle common to democracy, oligarchy, and every other form of government not to allow the disproportionate increase of any citizen, but to give moderate honor for a long time rather than great honor for a short time. . .

But above all every state should be so administered and so regulated by law that its magistrates cannot possibly make money.

There are three qualifications required in those who have to fill the highest offices(1) first of all, loyalty to the established constitution; (2) the greatest administrative capacity; (3) virtue and justice of the kind proper to each form of government. . . .

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.

...

Now it is evident that the form of government is best in which every man, whoever he is, can act for the best and live happily. . . .

Clearly, then, the best limit of the population of a state is the largest number which suffices for the purposes of life, and can be taken in at a single view. . . . In size and extent it should be such as may enable the inhabitants to live temperately and liberally in the enjoyment of leisure. . . Husbandmen, craftsmen, and laborers of all kinds are necessary to the existence of states, but the parts of the state are the warriors and councilors.

72. The "Commonwealth" of Cicero. Cicero handed down the current philosophy of the Greeks but added few new ideas. He praised the Roman constitution as combining the merits of all forms of government.

A commonwealth is a constitution of the entire people. But the people is not every association of men, however congregated, but the association of the entire number, bound together by the compact of justice, and the communication of utility. The first cause of this association is not so much the weakness of man, as a certain spirit of congregation which naturally belongs to him. . . .

When the direction of all depends on one person, we call this individual a king; and this form of political constitution, a kingdom. When it is in the power of privileged delegates, the state is said to be ruled by an aristocracy; and when the people are all in all, they call it a democracy, or popular constitution. . . . There is a fourth kind of government, therefore, which, in my opinion, is preferable to all these: it is that mixed and moderate government, which is composed of the three particular forms which I have already noticed. . . . But if I must confine myself to one of these particular forms simply and exclusively, I must confess I prefer the royal one, and praise that as the first and best. . . .

But it is itself inferior to that which is composed of an equal mixture of the three best forms of government, united and modified by one another. I wish to establish in a commonwealth a royal and preeminent chief. Another portion of power should be deposited in the hands of the aristocracy, and certain things should be reserved to the judgment and wish of the multitude. . . .

The laws are, therefore, based not on our sense of justice, but on our fear of punishment. There is, therefore, no natural justice; and hence it follows that men cannot be just by nature. . .

True law is right reason conformable to nature, universal, unchangeable, eternal, whose commands urge us to duty, and whose prohibitions restrain us from evil. . . .

So this statesman of ours should have studied the science of jurisprudence and legislation; he should have investigated their original sources; but he should not embarrass himself in debating and arguing, reading and scribbling. He should rather employ himself in the actual administration of government, and become a sort of steward of it, being perfectly conversant with the principles of universal law and equity, without which no man can be just: not unfamiliar with the civil laws of states; but he will use them for practical purposes, even as a pilot uses astronomy, and a physician natural philosophy.

III. MEDIEVAL POLITICAL THEORY

73. Political theory of the early Church. The following extracts from the New Testament show the unpolitical nature of the early Church:

21. . . . Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's.

36. Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

1. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

2. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. . . 6. For, for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

7. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.

74. Political theory of the Popes. The Dictatus Papae, formulated about 1090, states the papal claims as to rights and prerogatives.

alone.

1. That the Roman church was established by God alone. 2. That the Roman pontiff alone is rightly called universal. 8. That he alone may use the imperial insignia. 9. That all princes shall kiss the foot of the pope 12. That he has the power to depose emperors. 24. That by his command or permission subjects may accuse their rulers.

27. That he has the power to absolve subjects from their oath of fidelity to wicked rulers.

In the deposition and excommunication of Henry IV, issued by Gregory VII in 1076, the claim that the Pope has temporal power derived from God is stated:

St. Peter, prince of the apostles . . . it is not by my efforts, but by thy grace, that I am set to rule over the Christian world which was specially intrusted to thee by Christ. It is by thy grace and as thy representative