_F O R particular_ Frames _and_ Models, _it will become me to say little; and comparatively I will say nothing. My Reasons are:_ First, _That the Age is too nice and difficult for it; there being nothing the Wits of Men are more busy and divided upon. 'Tis true, they seem to agree in the End,_ to wit, _Happiness; but in the Means they differ, as to divine, so to this human Felicity; and the Cause is much the same, not always Want of Light and Knowledge, but Want of Using them rightly. Men side with their Passions against their Reason, and their sinister Interests have so strong a Biass upon their Minds, that they lean to them against the good of the things they know._
Secondly, _I do not find a Model in the World, that Time, Place, and some singular Emergencies have not necessarily altered; nor is it easy to frame a civil Government, that shall serve all Places alike._
Thirdly, _I know what is said by the several Admirers of_ Monarchy, Aristocracy, _and_ Democracy, _which are the Rule of one, a few, and many, and are the three common Ideas of Government, when Men discourse on that Subject. But I chuse to solve the Controversy with this small Distinction, and it belongs to all three:_ Any Government is free to the People under it (_whatever be the Frame_) where the Laws rule, and the People are a Party to those Laws; _and more than this is Tyranny, Oligarchy, or Confusion_.
_BUT_ Lastly, _when all is said, there is hardly one Frame of Government in the World so ill designed by its first Founders, that in good Hands would not do well enough; and Story tells us, the best in ill ones can do nothing that is great or good; Witness the_ Jewish _and_ Roman _States. Governments, like Clocks, go from the Motion Men give them; and as Governments are made and moved by Men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore Governments rather depend upon Men, than Men upon Governments. Let Men be good, and the Government can't be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But if Men be bad, let the Government be never so good, they will endeavour to warp and spoil it to their Turn._
_I know some say, Let us have good Laws, and no matter for the Men that execute them: But let them consider, That though good Laws do well, good Men do better: For good Laws may want good Men, and be abolished or evaded by ill Men; but good Men will never want good Laws, nor suffer ill ones. 'Tis true, good Laws have some awe upon ill Ministers, but that is where they have no Power to escape or abolish them, and the People are generally wise and good: But a loose and depraved People (which is to the Question) love Laws and an Administration like themselves. That therefore which makes a good Constitution, must keep it,_ viz. _Men of Wisdom and Virtue, Qualities, that because they descend not with worldly Inheritances, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous Education of Youth; for which After-Ages will owe more to the Care and Prudence of Founders and the successive Magistracy, than to their Parents for their private Patrimonies._