Harrington, for all his republicanism, preferred election to lot (as we have seen). Thus, election was probably the only principle of "Gothic prudence" to be retained in a scheme wholly oriented towards reviving the principles of "Ancient prudence." Montesquieu's famous phrase about the origins of the English government points in the same direction: "This marvellous system
was found in the woods" - the woods of Germania, that is, which had also given birth to "Gothic" customs and the feudal system.