VIII.8 The danger of corruption of the principle of the monarchical government
The problem is not when the state goes from moderate government to another moderate government, as from republic to monarchy, or from monarchy to republic, but when it falls and plunges from a moderate government into despotism.
Most of the peoples of Europe are still governed by moral standards. But if through a long abuse of power or by a great conquest despotism established itself to a degree, neither morality nor climate would help ; and in this fair part of the world humankind would suffer, at least for a time, the violence it suffers in the other three.