Commonwealth

partitions of the goods of another is robbery in the name of equality.
Moreover to say that equality is the mother of amity is to abuse the
ignorant, for there is no hatred so bitter, or enmity so deadly as that
between equals. Jealousy of equals one of another is the source of
unrest, disorder, and civil war. On the other hand the poor, the weak,
and the unprotected defer to and obey their betters, the rich and the
powerful, most willingly, with a view to their assistance, and the
advantages they hope will accrue. ...
Besides, what Lycurgus intended in dividing up property among
individuals to preserve equality of heritages in perpetuity was a thing
impossible of achievement. He could see for himself that the original
equality between individuals was almost immediately upset by the fact
that some parents had twelve or fifteen children, and others one or two,
or even none at all... Some, like Hippodamus the Milesian lawgiver, have
tried to solve this difficulty by limiting the citizen body to ten
thousand ... Sir Thomas More, the English Chancellor, thought that no
family should consist of less than ten or more than sixteen children, as
if he could command nature ... But one should never be afraid of having
too many subjects or too many citizens, for the strength of the
commonwealth consists in men. Moreover the greater the multitude of
citizens, the greater check there is on factious seditions. For there
will be many in an intermediate position between the rich and the poor,
the good and the bad, the wise and the foolish. There is nothing more
dangerous to the commonwealth than that its subjects should be divided
into two factions, with none to mediate between them. This is the normal
situation in a small commonwealth of few citizens. Let us therefore
reject the schemes of those who wish to introduce equality of property
in commonwealths already founded, by taking a man's property from him,
instead of securing to each that which belongs to him, for this is the
only way of establishing natural justice. Let us also reject the idea of
limiting the number of citizens, and conclude that there should be no