PER 
the partners. Utility is the end and aim of 
every such institution ; and the greatest and 
most extensive utility is the aim of that 
great associa,tion comprehending all the rest, 
and known by the name of the common- 
wealth.” Having stated and explained the 
grand purposes of society, he considers the 
best systems of means for attaining those 
purposes, and traces the distinction of ranks 
which arises from the/ inequalities of indivi- 
dual talents, virtue, and fortune. Political 
institutions are best fitted for promoting 
human happiness, w'hen they are most suit- 
able to the opinions and sentiments of the 
people, and the circumstances of the times 
and country. No one political system will 
equally suit all situations, and scarcely any 
two. Government being an arrangement, 
the best government must be the best ar- 
rangement, and the best arrangement is 
that in which the materials to be arranged 
are the best fitted both to receive and to 
preserve. The materials of the statesman 
or legislator are the number and character 
of his people, and the extent and quality of 
his country. The excellence of a common- 
wealth, however, is not to be estimated by 
its populousness or extent, but by its fitness 
for performing its proper functions; the 
same energies and habits constitute the 
happiness both of individuals and of nations. 
Men make governments, not governments 
them; nor by any system of political ar- 
rangements can a happy commonwealth be 
constituted from fools or cowards, profli- 
gates or knaves. The bricks must be first 
prepared before the edifice can be reared. 
The human character is a compound of good 
and evil ; the former arises from the balance 
of the affections, under the controul and 
guidance of reason, the latter results fiom 
passion operating without restiaint. That 
government is the best which most power- 
fully stimulates the energies of the people 
to' beneficial purposes, and restrains them 
from hurtful pursuits. That must be a sys- 
tem of freedom, in the first place tempered 
by order, and moderation in the second. 
Mixed governments, wisely formed and ba- 
lanced, best correspond to the state of man- 
kind.' Democracy, though apparently most 
agreeable to the rights of man, is not the 
best adapted to his wants ; the general will, 
unrestrained, is apt to run into excess ; to 
be precipitate in deliberation, and tardy in 
execution. Wliile simple democracy is in- 
expedient for the people themselves, simple 
aristocracy and simple monarchy are equally 
inexpedient; and being the subjection of 
PER 
the many to a few, or to one, are moreover 
unjust. For these reasons Aristotle recom- 
mends a constitution that combines and 
balances the three orders as the most gene- 
rally likely to promote the good of society. 
To his “ Treatise on Politics” Aristotle has 
added two books on “ Oeconomics,” in 
which he has treated in a similar way on 
the management of domestic concerns. 
Nothing is to be met with in the writings 
of Aristotle which decisively determines 
whether he thought the soul of man mortal 
or immortal ; but the former appears most 
probable, from his notion of the nature and 
origin of the human soul, which he con- 
ceived to be an intellectual po wer, externally 
transmitted into the human body from an 
Eternal Intelligence, the common source of 
rationality to human beings. Aristotle does 
not inform his readers what he conceived 
this universal principle to be; but there is 
no proof that he supposed the union of this 
principle with any individual to continue 
after death. 
PERIPHERY, in geometry, the circum- 
ference of a circle, ellipses, or any other re- 
gular curvilinear figure. 
PERIPLOCA, in botany, a genus of 
the Pentandria Digynia class and or- 
der. Natural order of Contorta;. Apo- 
cinese, Jussieu. Essential character: nec- 
tary encircling the gentials, and putting 
forth five threads. There are thirteen 
species, of which P. graeca, common Viiv 
ginian silk, or periploca, has shrubby, 
twining stems, covered with a dark-colour- 
ed bark, sending out slender branches, 
twining round each other; leaves ovate, 
lanceolate, nearly four inches long, and two 
broad in the middle ; of a lucid green on 
their upper side, paler underneath, oppo- 
site, on short foot-stalks ; the flowers ap- 
pear near the ends of the small branches in 
bunches of a purple colour, in the months 
of July and August. 
PERISCII, in geography, tlie inhabi- 
tants of either frigid zone, between the po- 
lar circles and the poles ; where the sun, 
when in the summer signs, moves only 
round about them, without setting,, and ’ 
consequently their shadows, in the same 
day, turn to all the points of the horizon. 
PERISTALTIC, in medicine, a vermi- 
cular spontaneous motion of the intestines, 
performed by the contraction of the circu- 
lar and longitudinal fibres, of which the 
fleshy coats of the intestines is composed ; 
by means whereof the chyle is driven into 
