_Socrates._ Then whom do you call the good?
_Alcibiades._ I mean by the good those who are able to rule in the
city.
_Socrates._ Not, surely, over horses?
_Alcibiades._ Certainly not.
_Socrates._ But over men?
_Alcibiades._ Yes.
PLATO, _Dialogues: First Alcibiades_. Tr. Jowett, Vol. IV. p. 545.
* * * * *
Amongst the foremost purposes ought to be the downfall of
this odious, insulting, degrading, aide-de-campish, incapable
dictatorship. At such a crisis, is this country to be left at the
mercy of barrack councils and mess-room politics?--_Letter of Lord
Durham to Henry Brougham, August, 1830_: _Life and Times of Henry
Lord Brougham_, Vol. III. p. 44.
* * * * *
It is a maxim in politics, which we readily admit as undisputed
and universal, that a power, however great, when granted by law
to an eminent magistrate, is not so dangerous to Liberty as an
authority, however inconsiderable, which he acquires from violence
and usurpation.
HUME, _Essays_, Part II.: Essay X., _Of Some Remarkable Customs_.