it, and can be brought more and more to conform to it in their conduct. All the combinations of the political machine then ought to tend, on the one hand, to extract whatever of reason, justice, or truth, exists in society, in order to apply it to the practical requirements of government; and, on the other hand, to promote the progress of society in reason, justice, and truth, and constantly to embody this progress of society in the actual structure of the government. {65} Lecture VII. Comparison of the principles of different governments with the true principle of representative government. Aristocratic governments. Origin and history of the word _aristocracy_. Principle of this form of government; its consequences. How the principle of representative government enters into aristocratic governments. Democratic governments. Origin and consequences of the principle of the sovereignty of the people. This principle not identical with that of representative government. In what sense representative government is the government of the majority. Changes In Language And Society. I have, in my previous lecture, shown the error of those superficial classifications which only distinguish governments according to their exterior characteristics; I have recognised and separated with precision between the two opposite principles, which are, both of them, the basis of all government; I have identified representative government with one of these principles; I have proved that it could not be deduced from the other; I wish now to compare the principle of representative government with the contrary principle, and to show the opposite condition of governments which refer to it as their starting-point. I will begin by an examination of that form of government which is usually termed _aristocratic_. Aristocratic Government. There is a close connexion between the progressive changes that may be observed in language and those that belong to society. The word _aristocracy_ originally signified the empire of the strong; [Greek text], were, at first, terms applied to those who were physically the most powerful; then they were used to designate the most influential, the richest, and finally the best, those possessing the most ability or virtue. This is the history of the successive acceptations of the word in the language from which it is borrowed; the same terms which were first applied to force, the superiority of force, came at length to designate moral and intellectual superiority--virtue. {66}