By Means of these excellent Institutions all publick Offices are duly and faithfully executed, and every Thing transacted in the most orderly Manner. This Empire, therefore, ought to be a Pattern for all Legislators to copy after in the Establishment of new Forms of Government. For that so many worthless Wretches get into Employments is not owing to any Want of Persons of Abilities to fill them up, but solely to an improper Choice. But if this Matter was taken Care of as it ought to be, and wise and able Men promoted not on Account of their general Merits, but of their Fitness to that particular Post, we should see publick Offices far better manag’d than they now are, and Governments in a more flourishing Condition. What a salutary Institution this is which we have been speaking of, is evident from the Example of this Empire. We find in the Annals of _Mezendoria_, that about three hundred Years ago this Law was repeal’d by the Emperor _Lilak_, and that publick Employments were conferr’d upon all Sorts of People indifferently, provided they had Merit of any Kind, or had signaliz’d themselves by any extraordinary Action. But this promiscuous Distribution of Places of Trust occasion’d so many and such great Disorders, that the Government seem’d upon the Point of being overturn’d thereby. Thus, for Example, a Wolf having acquitted himself with Reputation in the Management of the publick Revenues, lays Claim, on that Account, to a superior Dignity, and becomes a Senator; on the other Hand a Tree, having signaliz’d himself by the Integrity of his Decisions, was rewarded by an Employment in the Treasury. By this preposterous Promotion, two able Men at once were rendered absolutely useless to the Publick. A Goat, or a Philosopher, who was extoll’d to the Skies by the Scholasticks, for his Keenness and Obstinacy in defending an Argument, desiring to advance himself, requested the first Place that should happen to be vacant at Court, and obtain’d it; whilst a Cameleon, noted for his Good-Breeding and his Compliance with the Times, obtain’d by these Qualities a Professor’s Chair in the University, which he sollicited for the Sake of the Salary. The Effect of this was, that the former from an able Philosopher became an absurd Courtier; and the latter from an excellent Courtier, was transform’d into a most empty Philosopher. For that Perseverance in maintaining his Opinions, which does a Man Credit as a Philosopher, is an Imperfection in the other Character, since Fickleness and Inconstancy are cardinal Virtues at Court, and he that would rise there must regard not so much what is true, as what is safe, and must assume a different Aspect just as the Face of Affairs happens to change. What is there a Vice, is a Virtue in the Schools; where Positiveness, and a determin’d Resolution to adhere, at all Events, to the Point you have undertaken to defend, is a Token of a very great Man. In short, the Subjects in general,