On the Magistrates and Republic of Venice

of reason; rather, this duty must be conferred upon the pure mind, which is immune to the emotions of the soul. For this reason, by a certain divine counsel, since it could not be done in any other way, the human race seems to have achieved this through the invention of laws, so that this duty of ruling gatherings of men is entrusted only to the mind and to reason, which are subject to no perturbations. And this gift of the gods, I know not whether it should be considered inferior to anything, if one considers carefully the advantages of laws. For first, in the enacting of laws, many wise men assemble who, learned by the experience of many things and having compared the discoveries of others and the examples of the ancients, at last, after long consultation, decree that which has seemed best; nor can they at that time be led away from virtue by hatred, or friendship, or any other perturbation of the soul, since the laws are not being established for the sake of any private individual, as always happens in forensic trials. But after the laws are established, if anyone is found to have acted against them, and has paid the penalties which the laws have commanded, he justly has...