Having examined the laws in relation to the nature of each
government, we must investigate those which relate to its principle.
There is this difference between the nature and principle
[1]
of government, that the former is that by which it is constituted, the
latter that by which it is made to act. One is its particular structure,
and the other the human passions which set it in motion.
Now, laws ought no less to relate to the principle than to the
nature of each government. We must, therefore, inquire into this
principle, which shall be the subject of this third book.
