Book V.
Chap. 5.receive money for their daughters, instead of giving them fortunes. But I do not remember that a regulation of this kind ever took place in any republic. It lays the citizens under such hard and odious conditions, as would make them detest the very equality which they designed to establish. It is proper sometimes that the laws should not seem to tend so directly to the end they propose.
Though real equality be the very soul of a democracy, yet it is so difficult to establish, that an extreme exactness in this respect would not be always convenient. Sufficient it is to establish a census[1], which should reduce or fix the differences to a certain point: it is afterwards the business of particular laws to level as it were the inequalities, by the duties laid upon the rich, and by the ease they afford to the poor. It is moderate riches alone that can give or suffer this fort of compensations; for as to men of over-grown estates, every thing which does not contribute to advance their power and honor, is considered by them as an injury.
All inequality in a democracy ought to be derived from the nature of the democracy, and even from the principle of equality. For example, it may be apprehended that people who are obliged to live by their labour, would be too much impoverished by a public office, or neglect the duties attending it; that artisans would grow insolent, and that too great a number of freedmen would overpower the ancient citizens. In this case the equality of
- ↑ Solon made four classes, the first, of those who had an income of 500 minas either in corn or liquid fruits; the second, of those who had 300, and were able to keep a horse; the third, of those who had only 200; the fourth, of all those who lived by their manual labour. Plut. Life of Solon.
