Power is
always gradually stealing away from the many to the
few, because the few are more vigilant and consistent;
it still contracts to a smaller number, till in time
it centres in a single person.
Thus all the forms of governments instituted
among mankind, perpetually tend towards monarchy;
and power, however diffused through the
whole community, is, by negligence or corruption,
commotion or distress, reposed at last in the chief
magistrate.
"There never appear," says Swift, "more than
five or six men of genius in an age; but if they were
united, the world could not stand before them."
It is happy, therefore, for mankind, that of this
union there is no probability. As men take in a
wider compass of intellectual survey, they are more
likely to choose different objects of pursuit; as they
see more ways to the same end, they will be less
easily persuaded to travel together; as each is better
qualified to form an independent scheme of private
greatness, he will reject with greater obstinacy the
project of another; as each is more able to distinguish
himself as the head of a party, he will less
readily be made a follower or an associate.
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