[1] I must refer the reader for the development of the system of
Hobbes to the Essay on Hobbes in the "Quarrels of Authors," (last
edition, p. 436.)
[2] The masterpiece of legislation of Abbe Sieyes, who, during the
French Revolution, had always a new constitution in his pocket, was
founded on this principle of "checks and balances in the state,"
evidently adopted from Harrington. In Scott's "Life of Napoleon,"
vol. iv., the Abbe Sieyes' system is described.
[3] I think that Harrington presciently detected the latent causes of
a great revolution in France. The curiosity of the passage may
compensate for its length--
"Where there is tumbling and tossing upon the bed of sickness, it
must end in death or recovery. Though the people of the world, in the
dregs of the Gothic empire, be yet tumbling and tossing upon the bed
of sickness, they cannot die; nor is there any means of recovery for
them but by ancient prudence; whence, of necessity, it must come to
pass that this drug be better known. If _France_, _Italy_, and
_Spain_ were not all sick--all corrupted together, there would be
none of them so; for the sick would not be able to withstand the
sound, nor the sound to preserve their health without curing of the
sick. _The first of these nations, which, if you stay her leisure,
will, in my mind, be France_, that recovers the health of ancient
prudence, shall certainly _govern the world_."--_Oceana_, p. 168;
edition 1771.
[4] The Art of Law-giving, 366, 4to edition.
[5] See the solemn denunciations of the "Biographia Britannica," p.
2536, which are repeated by later biographers; see Chalmers.