102 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



remember that, carefully as we now distinguish the func- 

 tions of legislator, judge, juror, and witness, it was only 

 by slow degrees that they were distinguished. All grew 

 out of the various attributes of an Assembly which, as being 

 itself the people, exercised every branch of that power which 

 the people has, at sundry times and in divers manners, 

 intrusted to the various bodies which directly or indirectly 

 draw their authority from that one sovereign source. In all 

 times and in all places power can have no lawful origin 

 but the grant of the people. The difference between a 

 well- and an ill-ordered commonwealth lies in this : Have 

 the people wisdom and self-control enough to see that in 

 reverencing and obeying the powers of the State in their 

 lawful exercise they are in truth doing homage to themselves, 

 and giving the fullest proof of their fitness to discharge the 

 highest right of men and citizens? " 



The State is a natural institution. It takes form accord- 

 ing to the special wants and circumstances, the innate quali- 

 ties and spiritual aims of this or that people. We cannot 

 forbear asking. What higher purpose, if any, does the State 

 serve? Can the State be a factor in individual and social 

 development ? The State is concerned with human con- 

 duct, and its action is distinctly moral in character, and 

 enforces morality. Although it is quite true that we " can- 

 not make men good in the best sense of the word by x\ct of 

 Parliament," yet for all that the State does exercise a great in- 

 fluence in maintaining and improving morality. It lays down 

 a minimum of duty in many matters, and punishes when 

 there is any wilful neglect of its regulations. For example, 

 the State asserts that it is the duty of parents not only to 

 support but to educate their children, and requires parents to 

 act accordingly. But all this only confirms the account given 

 long ago of the function of the State by the greatest of states- 

 men. Pericles, in his famous funeral oration, describes what 

 Athens aims at doing for her sons, and what claims she has 

 upon their devotion. It is a city-state of which he speaks : 

 " We have a form of government which, from its not being 

 administered for the benefit of the few but of the many, 

 is called a democracy. . . We cultivate taste without 

 extravagance, and study philosophy without effeminacy ; 

 wealth is with us a thing not for display but for reason- 

 able use ; the acknowledgment of poverty we do not consider 

 disgraceful, but only the want of effort to escape from it." 

 (Thuc, ii., 37-40.) All through the speech, says Pollock, 

 runs the idea of the city-state being much more than a 

 source of protection. It exists for the culture of men ; it 

 is the sphere of the citizen's higher activity. The glory of 

 Athens is that she aims at producing, by means of a free 



