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.