But, whether they perceive it or not, they must be influenced by them.

As long as their minds have any point of contact with those of their fellow-men, the electric impulse, at whatever distance it may originate, will be circuitously communicated to them.
This will be the case even in large societies, where the division of labour enables many speculative men to observe the face of nature, or to analyse their own minds, at a distance from the seat of political transactions.

In the little republic of which Dante was a member the state of things was very different.

These small communities are most unmercifully abused by most of our modern professors of the science of government.

In such states, they tell us, factions are always most violent: where both parties are cooped up within a narrow space, political difference necessarily produces personal malignity.