For particular frames and models [of government] it will become me to say little. . . . My reasons are: First, that the age is too nice and difficult for it, there being nothing the wits of men are more busy and divided upon. . . .
Secondly, I do not find a model in the world that time, place, and some singular emergencies have not necessarily altered; nor is it easy to frame a civil government that shall serve all places alike.
Thirdly, I know what is said by the several admirers of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, which are the rule of one, a few, and many, and are the three common ideas of government when men discourse on that subject. But I choose to solve the controversy with this small distinction, and it belongs to all three: any government is free to the people under it (whatever to be the frame) where the laws rule, and the people are a party to those laws; and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, and confusion.
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:
1. Why does Penn hesitate to prescribe a particular model of government as the best?
2. What conditions should underlie any government according to Penn? What are the consequences of ignoring these ideals?