It is attributed to Caesar that he conceived the grand idea of establishing general liberty under the sole dominion of one great, and therefore beneficent, ruler.

I think he saw no farther than that he, by strategy, management, and courage might become this ruler, whether beneficent or the reverse.

But here I think that it becomes the writer, whether he be historian, biographer, or fill whatever meaner position he may in literature, to declare that no beneficence can accompany such a form of government.

For all temporary sleekness, for metropolitan comfort and fatness, the bill has to be paid sooner or later in ignorance, poverty, and oppression.

With an oligarchy there will be other, perhaps graver, faults; but with an oligarchy there will be salt, though it be among a few.