A very striking implication of the persistent character of the problem may be found in the fact that much of the current terminology of political science implies the presence of corruption as a common factor in the life of the state. To modern students Greek classifications of forms of government appear rather naive, considered simply as classifications, but many of the separate terms employed in them nevertheless remain in general use. Plato, for example, describes the decline of the pure Republic ruled by philosophers who are actuated by the highest motives, first into Timarchy, next into Oligarchy, then into Democracy in the sense of mob rule, and finally into Tyranny. We must infer that in the real world, as the Philosopher saw it, the number of perfect Republics, granting that such beatific political entities or any acceptable approximation to them could exist, would be far less than the number of degenerate states. The common characteristic of all the latter from Timarchy to Tyranny is the predominance of some form of personal or narrow group interest over the highest interests of the state. In other words the great majority of state forms as classified by Plato are to be distinguished by the degree and kind of corruption they exhibit. Aristotle’s distinction between pure forms of constitutions,—Royalty, Aristocracy, and Polity,—and the corresponding perverted forms,—Tyranny, Oligarchy, and Democracy,—is based fundamentally upon the existence of purity or corruption in the sovereign, whether it be composed of the one, few, or many. Dealing as he was largely with actual constitutions, Aristotle makes it clear that in the world as he knew it, the corrupt forms of government, particularly oligarchy and democracy, were much more common than the pure forms, that, in fact, some degree of corruption was frequent, and purity, on the other hand, exceptional in political life. Other classifications of states regardless of their moral condition are, of course, possible. Mr. Seeley has given us one that, for modern purposes, is certainly much more useful than the Aristotelian. The continued use of the latter in common speech and, to a somewhat less extent in historical and scientific discussion, is evidence, however, of a high degree of availability in describing actual political conditions or what are believed to be such. And since this terminology implies the existence of corruption as an ordinary accompaniment of political life, its wide acceptance and continued use strengthens the conviction that corruption in some form is a persistent problem of politics.