ing off conſiderable gainers;—thus at length the balance is broke, and tyranny let in, from which door of the three it matters not.
The deſires of men, are not only exorbitant, but endleſs: they graſp at all; and can form no ſcheme of perfect happineſs with leſs. Ever ſince men have been formed into governments, the endeavours after univerſal monarchy have been bandied among them: the Athenians, the Spartans, the Thebans, and the Achaians, ſeveral times aimed at the univerſal dominion of Greece: the commonwealths of Carthage and Rome affected the univerſal empire of the world: in like manner has abſolute power been purſued, by the ſeveral powers in each particular ſtate, wherein ſingle perſons have met with moſt ſucceſs, though the endeavours of the few and the many have been frequent enough; yet being neither ſo uniform in their deſigns, nor ſo direct in their views, they neither could manage nor maintain the power they had got, but were deceived by the popular ambition of ſome ſingle perſon: ſo that it will be always a wrong ſtep in policy, for the nobles or commons to carry their endeavours after power ſo far as to overthrow the balance. With all reſpect for popular aſſemblies be it ſpoken, it is hard to recoiled one folly, infirmity, or vice, to which a ſingle man is ſubject, and from which a body of commons, either collective or repreſented, can be wholly exempt; from whence it comes to paſs, that in their reſults, have ſometimes been found the ſame ſpirit of cruelty and revenge, of malice and pride; the ſame blindneſs, and obſtinacy, and unſteadineſs; the ſame ungovernable rage and anger; the ſame injuſtice, ſophiſtry, and fraud, that ever lodged in the breaſt of any individual. When a child grows eaſy by
