ARI 



ARI 



the vest of the community ; such is the 

 case in the constitution of Venice. Se- 

 condly, where the nobles are severally in- 

 vested with great personal power and im- 

 munities, and where the power of the 

 senate is little more than the aggregate 

 power of the individuals who compose it; 

 such was the case in the constitution of 

 Poland. Of these two forms of govern- 

 ment, the first is more tolerable than the 

 last ; for although many, or even all, the 

 members of a senate should be so pro- 

 fligate, as to abuse the authority of their 

 stations in the prosecution of private de- 

 signs, yet, whilst all were not under a 

 temptation to the same injustice, and hav- 

 ing the same end to gain, it would still 

 be difficult to obtain the consent of a ma- 

 jority to any specific act of oppression, 

 which the iniquity of an individual might 

 prompt him to propose : or, if the will 

 were the same, the power is more confin- 

 ed ; one tyrant, whether the tyranny re- 

 side in a single person, or a senate, can- 

 not exercise oppression in so many places 

 at the same time, as may be carried on 

 by the dominion of a numerous nobility 

 over their respective vassals and depend- 

 dents. Of' all species of domination, this 

 is the most odious ; the freedom and sa- 

 tisfaction of private life are more restrain- 

 ed and harassed by it, than by the most 

 vexatious laws, or even by the lawless 

 will of an arbitrary monarch, from whose 

 knowledge, and from whose injustice, 

 the greatest part of his subjects are re- 

 moved by their distance, or concealed by 

 their obscurity. An aristocracy of this 

 kind has been productive, in several in- 

 stances, of disastrous revolutions, and the 

 people have concurred with the reigning 

 prince in exchanging their condition for 

 the miseries of despotism. This was the 

 case in Denmark about the middle of the 

 seventeenth century, and more lately in 

 Sweden. In England, also, the people 

 beheld the depression of the barons, un- 

 der the house of Tudor, with satisfaction, 

 although they saw the crown acquiring 

 thereby a power, which no limitations, 

 provided at that time by the constitution, 

 were likely to confine. 



From such events this lesson may be 

 drawn : " That a mixed government, 

 which admits a patrician order into the 

 constitution, ought to circumscribe the 

 personal privileges of the nobility, espe- 

 cially claims of hereditary jurisdiction and 

 local authority, with a jealousy equal to 

 the solicitude with which it provides for 

 its own preservation." Palev's Princ. of 

 Phiios. 



ARISTOLOCHIA, in botany, birth-tvort, 



a genus of plants of the Gynandria Hex 

 andria class and order. Stigmata six ; 

 no calyx ; corol one petalled, tubular, 

 tongue shaped ; capsule inferior, six-cell- 

 ed. There are 27 species, most foreign. 



ARISTOTELIA, a genus of the Dode- 

 candria Monogynia class and order : ca- 

 lyx five-leaved ; petals five; style-three- 

 cleft ; berry three-celled, with two seeds 

 in each. One species, found in Chili, a 

 shrub, leaves ever-green; flowers white 

 in axillary racemes. 



ARISTOTELIAN, something relating 

 to Aristotle : thus we read of the Aristo- 

 telian philosophy, school, &.C. See PERI- 

 PATETICS. 



ARITHMETIC, the art of numbering ; 

 or, that part of mathematics which consi- 

 ders the powers and properties of num- 

 bers, and teaches how to compute or 

 calculate truly, and with expedition and 

 ease. By some authors it is also defined 

 the science of discreet quantity. It con- 

 sists chiefly in the four great rules or 

 operations of Addition, Subtraction, Mul- 

 tiplication, and Division. Concerning the 

 origin and invention of arithmetic we have 

 very little information : history fixes nei- 

 ther the author nor the time. Some 

 knowledge, however, of numbers must 

 have existed in the earliest ages of man- 

 kind. This knowledge would be sug- 

 gested to them, whenever they opened 

 their eyes, by their own fingers, and by 

 their flocks and herds, and by the variety 

 of objects that surrounded them. A*t 

 first, indeed, their powers of numeration 

 would be of very limited extent ; and be- 

 fore the art of writing was invented, it 

 must have depended on memory, or on 

 such artificial helps as might most easily 

 be obtained. To their ten fingers they 

 would, without doubt, have recourse in 

 the first instance ; and hence they would 

 be naturally led to distribute numbers 

 into periods, each of which consisted of 

 ten units. This practice was common 

 among all nations, the ancient Chinese, 

 and an obscure people mentioned by 

 Aristotle, excepted. But though some 

 kind of computation must have com- 

 menced at a very early period, the intro- 

 duction of arithmetic as a science,andthe 

 improvments it underwent, must, in a 

 great degree, depend upon the introduc- 

 tion and establishment of commerce ; and 

 as commerce was gradually extended and 

 improved, and other sciences were dis- 

 covered and cultivated, arithmetic would 

 be improved like wise > It is therefore 

 probable, that if it was not of Tyrian in- 

 vention,5t must have been much indebted 

 to the Phoenicians or Tyrians. Proclus, 



