SECT. VI.
XXVII. But how shall we reconcile what we have just now said against the nobility, with what we said but a little before in their favour? Easily, by saying this prerogative is not laudable, but honourable. The arguments we have just urged impugn its laudabillty, those we are about to use are affirmative of its honour. This is a distinction pointed out by Aristotle, between virtue and all the other excellences which illustrate the human race. Virtue, he says, is laudable; riches, nobility, and power, deserve no praise, but have a pretension to be honoured. So that there is nothing in nobility which a man should boast or be vain of; but there is something in it, which those who are inferior to them in rank should reverence and respect. This distinction will reconcile all difficulties, and assure to the nobility esteem, without fomenting their vanity.