Kings are not to be Chosen for the Beauty or the Gracefulness of
their Persons, but for the Reputation they have in the World, and the
Endowments of their Minds. This Fable shews likewise the Necessity of
Civil Order, and the Danger of Popular Elections, where a Factious
Majority commonly Governs the Choice. Take the Plurality of the World,
and they are neither Wise, nor Good; and if they be left to Themselves,
they will Undoubtedly Chuse such as They Themselves Are. ’Tis the Misery
of _Elective Governments_, that there will be Eternally Corruption and
Partiality in the Choice; for there’s a Kind of a Tacit Covenant in the
Case, that the King of their Own making shall make his Makers Princes
too: So that they Work for Themselves all this while, not for the
Publique: But the _Pye’s_ Question stopt all their Mouths, and it was
wisely let fall too without a Reply, to Intimate that it was Unanswerable.