III.6 How virtue is compensated for under monarchical government
I am moving quickly and taking long strides so it will not be thought I am satirizing monarchical government. No : if it lacks one driving force, it has another. Honor, which is to say the prejudice of each person and of every rank, takes the place of virtue, and represents it everywhere ; honor can inspire the finest deeds ; it can, combined with the force of the laws, lead to the government’s ends like virtue itself.
Thus, in well-ordered monarchies, everyone will be more or less a good citizen, and rarely will anyone be found who is a man of good will ; for being a man of good will requires that that be his intention. [1]