Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/39

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ESSAY IV.

That Politics may be reduc'd to a Science.

It is a great Question with several, Whether there be any essential Difference betwixt one Form of Government and another? and, Whether every Form may not become good or bad, according as it is well or ill administred[1]? Were it once admitted, that all Governments are alike, and that the only Difference consists in the Character and Conduct of the Governors, most political Disputes wou'd be at an End, and all Zeal for one Constitution above another must be esteem'd mere Bigotry and Folly. But though I be a profest


  1. For Forms of Government let Fools contest:
    Whate'er is best administer'd is best.
    Essay on Man, Book 3. 

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