For, as I said, this state, more than any other, has been formed and has grown naturally, and will undergo a natural decline and change to its contrary.

The reader will be able to judge of the truth of this from the subsequent parts this work." The modern reader may think that all this is irrelevant to him, that the natural sciences will solve all his problems.

He would be wise to recall that the great Roman republic in which Polybius lived more than 2200 years ago, did indeed become transformed into tyranny and, in the end, into anarchy and oblivion.

No wonder that the makers of the American constitution keenly studied Polybius.

Not only has Taine's comments and factual description of the cyclic French political history much to teach us about ourselves and the dangers which lie ahead, but it also shows us the origins and weakness of our political theories.