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328 ON THE RISE, PROGRESS, ETC.reignty is thus intrusted to the ruler, all private will is atonce submitted to him. He is in no wise bound by thelaws which the others may prescribe he unites in himselfthe supreme executive and legislative authority, 1 and istherefore in every way absolute, inviolable, and irresponsible.Moreover, the power which has been granted to him cannotever be revoked, for as the nation has transferred this, it nolonger constitutes what, morally speaking, may be termedone person, but exists only as an aggregate of individuals.It is true that the original act may have settled thesovereignty either upon one man, or upon a certain number,or even on the greater part of the people. And thusHobbes would not by histheory exclude either an aristocracy or a democracy, provided either of these forms werepure and absolute. But then he wished also to prove thata monarchy is far preferable to the other two, and thus hebecame its advocate, not only generally, but in its most unlimited character of despotism. Mixed constitutions heheld to be ipso facto absurd, since they imply the divisionof the sovereignty, which, according to him, is a contradiction of terms.Those are the principal opinions of Hobbes, who maywithout doubt claim to be considered as the founder of political speculation in modern times none of his predecessors had treated the subject with so much acuteness andpower of reasoning. He rose above common experience,and having once established his theory of a state, he guardedit well about. His system rested upon these three positions :1st, The supreme poweris indivisible :2nd, The supremepower may be transferred : 3rd, When transferred its unitymust be maintained.The converse of the second of these (viz.) that thesupreme power is intransferable, was at a later periodadvanced by Rousseau, who was thus unavoidably led toconsider a democracy as the only just form of governmentHobbes, on the other hand, attained by his view to themost unlimited monarchy and aristocracy, without, as wehave said, wholly excluding democracy. The only condi-1Impeiium absolutum, De Cite, vl 13. Hobbes has no general term forthe executive power, lie characterizes it according to particular acts of thegovernment.