ame time, the genuine sanctity which surrounds him is attributed to,
and grounded on, the position in which he stands as the convergence and
exponent of the life and power of the state.

The great end of the body politic appears to be to humanise, and assist in
the progressiveness of, the animal man;--but the problem is so complicated
with contingencies as to render it nearly impossible to lay down rules for
the formation of a state. And should we be able to form a system of
government, which should so balance its different powers as to form a
check upon each, and so continually remedy and correct itself, it would,
nevertheless, defeat its own aim;--for man is destined to be guided by
higher principles, by universal views, which can never be fulfilled in
this state of existence,--by a spirit of progressiveness which can never be
accomplished, for then it would cease to be. Plato's Republic is like
Bunyan's Town of Man-Soul,--a description of an individual, all of whose
faculties are in their proper subordination and inter-dependence; and this
it is assumed may be the prototype of the state as one great individual.
But there is this sophism in it, that it is forgotten that the human
faculties, indeed, are parts and not separate things; but that you could
never get chiefs who were wholly reason, ministers who were wholly
understanding, soldiers all wrath, labourers all concupiscence, and so on
through the rest. Each of these partakes of, and interferes with, all the
others.

"Henry IV.--Part I."

Act i. sc. 1. King Henry's speech:--

"No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood."

A most obscure passage: but I think Theobald's interpretation right,
namely, that "thirsty entrance" means the dry penetrability, or bibulous
drought, of the soil. The obscurity of this passage is of the
Shakespearian sort.

_Ib._ sc. 2. In this, the first introduction of Falstaff, observe the
consciousness and the intentionality of his wit, so that when it does not
flow of its own accord, its absence is felt, and an effort visibly made to
recall it. Note also throughout how Falstaff's pride is gratified in the
power of influencing a prince of the blood, the heir apparent, by means of
it. Hence his dislike to Prince John of Lancaster, and his mortification
when he finds his wit fail on him:--

"_P. John._ Fare you well, Falstaff: I, in my condition,
Shall better speak of you than yo