keep us in our Wits. Although if it be the black Broth which the Lacedemonians us'd[1], as some learned Authors are of Opinion, I grant it hath a sovereign Operation to strengthen politic Notions, especially such as concern Republics, and is the same which Lycurgus himself drank, when he form'd his Commonwealth; and among other excellent Constitutions, hit upon that excellent Law, that enjoins Women to wear Slits in their Petticoats, and Boys to steal Bread and Butter, as Plutarch writes in his Life; and I could wish Mr. Harrington may be desired by this Assembly to introduce it into his Oceana—But this is not that, which I purpose to propose at this Time, but something that does more immediately concern the present Government, which as yet we live under, for whose Service I suppose these Meetings are pe-
- ↑ Although if it be the black Broth, which the Lacedemonians used] Plutarch tells us, that this Black Broth, whatever it was, was the favourite Food of the Lacedemonians, especially of the older and graver Sort.
Troubles of his Time were not to be wholly attributed to Wilfulness or Faction, neither to the Misgovernment of the Prince, nor the Stubbornness of the People; but to a change in the Balance of Property, which ever since Henry the seventh's Time was daily falling into the Scale of the Commons, from that of the King and the Lords".———All Imperfections of Government he imputes to over-Balance, which in one, says he, creates absolute Monarchy, in the few Aristocracy, and in the People popular Government. See Harrington's Life and Works.
