which in the case of ordinary men cannot be gratified without meeting with obstacles, not only do not meet such obstacles and do not arouse any condemnation in the case of those who rule, but on the contrary are applauded by all who surround them. The latter generally benefit by the madness of their masters; and besides, it pleases them to imagine that the virtues and wisdom to which alone it is natural for reasonable men to submit are to be found in the men to whom they submit; and therefore, the vices of those in power are lauded as if they were virtues, and grow to terrible proportions.
Consequently the folly and vice of the crowned and uncrowned rulers of the nations have reached such appalling dimensions as were reached by the Neros, Charleses, Henrys, Louis, Johns, Peters, Catherines, and Marats.
Nor is this all. If the rulers were satisfied with their personal debauchery and vices they would not do so much harm; but idle, satiated, and depraved men, such as rulers were and are, must have something to live for—must have some aims and try to attain them. And such men can have no aim except to get more and more fame. All other passions soon reach the limits of satiety. Only ambition has no limits, and therefore almost all potentates always strove and strive after fame, especially military fame, the only kind attainable by depraved men unacquainted with, and incapable of, real work. For the wars devised by the potentates, money, armies and, above all, the slaughter of men, are necessary; and in consequence of this the condition of the ruled becomes harder and harder, and at last the oppression reaches a point at which the ruled can no longer continue to submit to the ruling power, but must try to alter their relation towards it.
III.
Such is one reason of alteration in the relations between the rulers and the ruled. Another still more important reason of
