nature and universal relation are preserved, affording a clue to their true principles and improvement.

1427. To comprehend any thing, we must ascertain the extremes by which it is bounded. The extremes of political government are the government by an individual, being an absolute monarchy or Autocracy, and the government by the whole of a community, being a universal republic or Democracy; which are, indeed, conceivable, but impracticable and vicious extremes. Accordingly, a Monarch must depute at least an executive, as a people or Republic must also a legislative power; and the mean of these extremes is polygarchy or Aristocracy.

1428. Of these extremes and mean is constituted the mixed government, being that which we have already traced upward from nature, which may be called an Analocracy, because it comprehends the three in subordination, and is a form which, discarding the absolute in Prince and People, renders every part relative to, and harmonious as, a whole, or Analogous; the opposite of which is Anarchy, in which all are governors and none obey the laws, and this is identical with the vicious extreme of democracy.

1429. Again, conversely, among men congregated without organized government, or in a state of wild republicanism, every individual is naturally his own defender and avenger, the framer and executor of his own laws. This is called the State

of Nature, and differs from anarchy in being a preparation for, and not a dissolution of government.

1430. The nearest approach to this state existing is that of the Aborigines of Australia; but, since the entire state of nature is the state of absolute liberty, equality, &c., it can exist only for an individual in a desert, and is not political; for no sooner does an individual enter into community with another, than liberty is abridged by the establishment of some law of intercourse and conduct, and equality ceases: unless, indeed, we can imagine them of one will and of equal powers. Proceeding hence, the individual will is required to yield to the general will and to superiority of powers; and the general will is required, in like manner, to yield to the universal will, which is the religious extreme.

1431. The next conceivable state, and first political organization of a community, is that in which a congress of men concur to defend and avenge their reciprocal and common rights and injuries; a state in which each individual has equal claim to legislative and executive powers: and this is Democracy or republicanism, being one step removed from the state of nature,— or, on the dissolution of an organized government, it is a change toward anarchy.

1432. If Democracy has, on one extreme, a physical state or state of nature, conceivable but not practicable, it has, on the other extreme, a moral or Divine state imaginable, in which every

individual governing himself, and doing no wrong, all law becomes extinct, and all legislation needless. This is the perfect ideal state in Politics, and coincides with the highest extreme of political government in the kingdom of God, or Theocracy, wherein all human authority is submerged in the Divine.

1433. Without such ideal state and union of moral and political perfection, man must be held incapable of perfect liberty, with the absence of all political distinction; and in proportion as society approaches this state, man approaches physical, sensible, and intellectual perfection. As, however, this is a state to which society can never attain, or approach near to, without liberty, liberty and virtue are coessential. It is apparent herefrom why art, science, and whatever elevates the human character, have ever advanced with moral and political freedom.

1434. Man, naturally ambitious, ever aims at distinction; in the savage state, he seeks distinction in arms and gaudy decorations—in an advancing and cultivated state, his chief distinctions lie in arts and learning-in a commercial state, in riches in a luxurious or sensual state, in title, privilege, and ostentation; whence he revolves again in a circle toward the savage state: but as neither of these states subsists alone, so is neither of these distinctions sought otherwise than through predominance.

1435. But in a free and moral state, wherein

arbitrary and sensible distinctions are not falsely esteemed, men are propense to intellectual and natural distinction; hence the mighty influence of freedom upon art, science, literature, and morals : in all of which for a man to merit the applause of his compatriots is the noblest distinction, and an elevation to which all ranks look up.

1436. Hence, also, is apparent why despotic rule, and institutional honours, when unconnected with merit, are hostile to manly dignity, and true nobility and art, by holding up to emulation rewards which are too often accessible to slavish sycophancy, and whatever corrupts a state and degrades the true honour of man. Nevertheless, these distinctions are rarely attained without some merit, nor, without merit, retained with honour; and there is no question or denial here of the utility of institutional honours in the imperfect moral state, which alone renders political rule necessary to men, and will so long as men are men: but, in a purely moral and imaginarily perfect state, man can acquire honour and distinction through merit and virtue alone, for of such are the nobility of God.

1437. Opposed to Democracy is that construction of society in which the whole of a community is subject to a single individual, and this is called Autocracy or Monarchy; a state in which uncontrolled power,-legislative, judicial, and executive, -is lodged in the hands of an hereditary Prince

or Chief, the representative of the common Father or Sire of a people, and the fountain of veneration and honour, in whom the individual and community regard their defender and avenger, to protect their rights and avenge their wrongs.

1438. Between these lies Aristocracy or Timocracy, or that form of polity in which the three powers of a state are exercised by a plurality of individuals, who are in general hereditary Nobles or Chiefs. This being the government of a few, as distinguished from the many of the community, is also called an Oligarchy.

1439. Such, again, are the three primary forms of polity, of which the examples are numerous and notorious; yet wherever either has prevailed, some mixture of the others has been found: thus, aristocracy and democracy have each its President or Chairman, and the Monarch has his Councillors.

1440. Hence arises a great variation and composition of these forms or estates. The Regal state and office even, the most absolute of the three, is not necessarily filled by an individual, but is occasionally substituted by a Regency, Council, or Directory; and it may occur hereafter, in the vicious progress of Politics, to place the executive power permanently in a Great Council of a Nation, delegated and chosen equally by the other estates: and this also would require its Chairman or Chief, its King of Kings.

1441. The artificial forms of government are