Chapter II: On the State or Commonwealth

552. Rationale and opportuneness of the argument. Although it would be foreign to our proposal to dispute properly concerning the commonwealth or State, since this argument is customarily referred to the parts of the Institutes of Natural Law, nevertheless accurate knowledge of it is so useful, and almost necessary, for solving several questions of justice, especially legal justice, that at the end of this volume it seemed proper to speak of it summarily yet clearly, according to our abilities, chiefly intending this: that the office and parts of public power might be readily perceived. Hence we shall speak in order concerning the origin or nature of the State; its end and the common good; the means to the end and public power; the associates, or members of the social body; the worst commonwealth and its exemplary form.