being a member of another, but a body by itself,--not part of any ulterior community, but complete in the fulness of social good and social authority. 2. Among the ancient Greeks and Italians, and to some extent also in mediæval Italy and Germany, the city or municipality, with the small country district attached, was the State. With us the nation is the State; and accordingly we say _my country_ where the Greek said _my city_. Bearing this difference in mind, as also the fact that the _sept_ is not known amongst us except to antiquarians, and likewise that the _village_ with us coincides with the _parish_, and that there are town as well as country parishes,--upon these modern data we may amend Aristotle's definition thus: _The State is the union of parishes and municipalities in a perfect and self-sufficient community_. 3. The City State is well illustrated in the following narrative of Thucydides (ii., 15): "In the time of Cecrops and the early kings as far as Theseus, Attica was always divided among several independent cities, with their own town-halls and magistrates; and when there was no alarm of an enemy, the inhabitants did not resort for common deliberation to the King, but severally managed their own affairs and took their own counsel, and some of them even went to war. But when Theseus came to the throne, he abolished the council-chambers and magistracies of the other cities, and centralised all the people in what is now the city [of Athens], where he appointed their one council-chamber and town-hall; and while they continued to occupy their own properties as before, he forced them to recognise this as their one city and State." Attica before Theseus was a _confederacy_, [Greek: xymmaxia], not a State, [Greek: polis]. 4. A _citizen_ is defined: "one who has access to a share in deliberative and judicial functions." (Ar., _Pol_. III., i., 12.) It is not necessary that he actually should share these functions, but the way to them should lie open to him: he should be a person qualified to share in them. There are various degrees of citizenship. Under a parliamentary government, we distinguish the member of parliament, the elector, and him who will be an elector as soon as he gets a house of his own; and again, the judge, and him who is liable to serve on juries. In an absolute monarchy there are no _citizens_, only _subjects_. 5. "The distribution of power in the State, and especially of the sovereign power, is called the _polity_" ([Greek: politeia], Ar., _Pol_., III., vi., 1),--a word immortalised by the judicious Hooker, and happily recovered recently to the English language. The _polity_ then is the distribution of the sovereignty. The person, singular or collective, in whose hands the full sovereignty rests, is called the _ruler_. Be it observed that what we call _the ruler_ is never one man, except in absolute monarchy. By the theory of the British Constitution, the _ruler_ is King, Lords, and Commons, together.