The Commonwealth of Oceana

The Commonwealth of Oceana is by James Harrington, and its contents list an introduction followed by parts titled The Preliminaries, The Council of Legislators, The Model of the Commonwealth of Oceana and The Corollary Description of Oceana. The introduction says that James Harrington, eldest son of Sir Sapcotes Harrington of Exton, in Rutlandshire, was born in the reign of James I, in January, 1611.

The text says that a law fixing the balance in lands is called agrarian, and was first introduced by God himself, who divided the land of Canaan to his people by lots. The text says that without an agrarian law, government, whether monarchical, aristocratical, or popular, has no long lease. The text says that Leviathan, following his furious master Carneades, has caught hold of the public sword, to which he reduces all manner and matter of government. The twentieth order sets out the method of debates to be observed by the magistrates and the councils successively in order to a decree of the Senate, and says the magistrates of the signory shall take into their consideration all matters of state or of government.