"as twenty, and immediately make a commonwealth. Twenty men, if they be not all ideots, perhaps if they be, can never come ſo together, but there will be ſuch a difference in them, that about a third will be wiſer, or at leaſt leſs fooliſh, than all the reſt. Theſe, upon acquaintance, though it be but ſmall, will be diſcovered, and (as ſtags that have the largeſt heads) lead the herd: for while the ſix, diſcourſing and arguing one with another, ſhew the eminence of their parts, the fourteen diſcover things that they never thought on, or are cleared in diverſe truths that formerly perplexed them: wherefore, in matters of common concernment, difficulty, or danger, they hang upon their lips, as children upon their fathers; and the influence thus acquired by the ſix, the eminence of whoſe parts are found to be a ſtay and comfort to the fourteen, is the authority of the fathers—auctoritas patrum. Wherefore this can be no other than a natural ariſtocracy, diffuſed by God throughout the whole body of mankind, to this end and purpoſe; and therefore ſuch as the people have not only a natural, but a poſitive obligation to make uſe of as their guides; as where the people of Iſrael are commanded to take wiſe men, and underſtanding, and known among their tribes, to be made rulers over them. The ſix then approved of, as in the preſent caſe, are the ſenate; not by hereditary right, or in regard to the greatneſs of their eſtates only, which would tend to ſuch power as would force or draw the people; but by election for their excellent parts, which tends to the advancement of the influence of their virtue or authority; that leads the people. Wherefore the office of the ſenate is not to be commanders, but coun-
