f we have more reason to be jealous of monarchy, because the
danger is more imminent from that quarter; we have also reason to
be more jealous of popular government, because that danger is more
terrible. This may teach us a lesson of moderation in all our
political controversies."--(III. 55.)

One may admire the sagacity of these speculations, and the force and
clearness with which they are expressed, without altogether agreeing
with them. That an analogy between the social and bodily organism
exists, and is, in many respects, clear and full of instructive
suggestion, is undeniable. Yet a state answers, not to an individual,
but to a generic type; and there is no reason, in the nature of things,
why any generic type should die out. The type of the pearly _Nautilus_,
highly organised as it is, has persisted with but little change from the
Silurian epoch till now; and, so long as terrestrial conditions remain
approximately similar to what they are at present, there is no more
reason why it should cease to exist in the next, than in the past,
hundred million years or so. The true ground for doubting the
possibility of the establishment of absolute monarchy in Britain is,
that opinion seems to have passed through, and left far behind, the
stage at which such a change would be possible; and the true reason for
doubting the permanency of a republic, if it is ever established, lies
in the fact, that a republic requires for its maintenance a far higher
standard of morality and of intelligence in the members of the state
than any other form of government. Samuel gave the Israelites a king
because they were not righteous enough to do without one, with a pretty
plain warning of what they were to expect from the gift. And, up to this
time, the progress of such republics as have been established in the
world has not been such, as to lead to any confident expectation that
their foundation is laid on a sufficiently secure subsoil of public
spirit, morality, and intelligence. On the contrary, they exhibit
examples of personal corruption and of political profligacy as fine as
any hotbed of despotism has ever produced; while they fail in the
primary duty of the administration of justice, as none but an effete
despotism has ever failed.

Hume has been accused of departing, in his old age, from the liberal
principles of his youth; and, no doubt, he was careful, in the later
editions of the _Essays_, to expunge everythi