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636 636 Vico. about forty years after the expulsion we find the Census agam mentioned, and treated with disdain by the nobihty, because now it was a popular institution, the money being paid into the treasury, and not to the nobles. Fabius at length founded upon the Census the distribution of the Romans into senators, knights and plebeians, substituting the democratic standard of wealth, for the aristocratic one of birth. Gradually the plebeians obtained complete equality with the patricians, and popular liberty began to degenerate into tyranny. The people, being equal, wished to be masters ; the poor desired to enrich themselves at the expence of their superiors ; unjust laws were proposed and force resorted to in order to carry or to resist them ; and hence it became necessary that the people should obtain repose, by placing themselves under the power of a single sovereign. Monarchy is thus the natural result of the excesses of democracy. The remains of aris- tocratic power are thus destroyed, the condition of the lower orders improved, the burthens of the slaves lightened by the absolute power of the emperors. The right of citizenship, which in earlier times had been restricted with so much jealousy, was profusely bestowed. Aristocracies are by their nature limited ; democracies are adapted for making conquests, monarchies for consolidating them. The Roman emperors, however, became depraved, and a second age of barbarism was brought about by the invasion of the northern hordes; one great cycle of history was accomplished, and another began, in which the same succession may be traced with marvellous correspondence. The Christian religion having triumphed over Paganism, and orthodoxy over Arianism, the divine age returned ; kings assumed a sacred character and the title of sacred majesty, clothed themselves with the garments of ecclesiastics, founded orders of a mixed military and religious character, and placed the cross upon their banners. Judgements of God were sub- stituted for trials by form of law ; duels, though forbidden by the Canon Law, were one species of these judgements. Religion appeared to be the only means, by which the tempers of men, grown savage by war, could be mollified ; and those who dreaded violence took refuge under the protection of bishops and abbots, and placed themselves, their families, and