§. 98. For if the consent of the majority shall not in reason be received as
the act of the whole, and conclude every individual, nothing but the consent of
every individual can make anything to be the act of the whole, which,
considering the infirmities of health and avocations of business, which in a
number though much less than that of a commonwealth, will necessarily keep many
away from the public assembly; and the variety of opinions and contrariety of
interests which unavoidably happen in all collections of men, it is next
impossible ever to be had. And, therefore, if coming into society be upon such
terms, it will be only like Cato's coming into the theatre, tantum ut exiret.
Such a constitution as this would make the mighty leviathan of a shorter
duration than the feeblest creatures, and not let it outlast the day it was
born in, which cannot be supposed till we can think that rational creatures
should desire and constitute societies only to be dissolved. For where the
majority cannot conclude the rest, there they cannot act as one body, and
consequently will be immediately dissolved again.
