HE who would oblige all nations at all times to take the same course, would prove as foolish as a physician who should apply the same medicine to all distempers, or an architect that would build the same kind of house for all persons, without considering their estates, dignities, the number of their children or servants, the time or climate in which they live, and other circumstances: or, which is, if possible, more sottish, a general who should obstinately resolve always to make war in the same way and to draw up his army in the same form, without examining the nature, number, and strength of his own and his enemies’ forces, or the advantages and disadvantages of the ground. But as there may be some universal rules in physic, architecture, and military discipline, from which men ought never to depart, so there are some in politics also which ought always to be observed; and wise legislators, adhering to them only, will be ready to change all others, as occasion may require, in order to the public good.