NOTES, BOOK 221. I. 107
different in kind can fall under one class or conception, and the
meaning, even if possible, is at variance with the immediate
context which treats not of citizens but of constitutions.+hs 82 nohmias 6pP;p.v d8cc 8cacp~poiaar cihX<Xov, mi zhs piv Cmpas 1. 9.
sbs 8; ~pmipas ov’aas.
The logical distinction of prior and posterior is applied by
Aristotle to states, and SO leads to the erroneous inference that
the perfect form of the state has little or nothing in common with
the imperfect. so in Nic. Eth. i. 6. 8 2, ‘there are no common
Ideas of things prior and posterior.’ The logical conceptions of
prior and posterior have almost ceased to exist in modern meta-
physics; they are faintly represented to us by the expressions
‘a priori’ and ‘a posteriori,’ or ‘prior in the order of thought,’
n hich are a feeble echo of them j from being differences in kind,
they are becoming differences of degree, owing to the increasing
sense of the continuity or development of all things.8idmp d hcxdds iv piv 8tlpo~pa~iq ~(~XLOT’ mi sohirqs. 1. IO.
Yet not so truly as in Aristotle’s own polity hereafter to be
descnbed, in which all the citizens are equal (cp. infra, c. 13. $ I 2).
Democracy is elsewhere called a perversion (infra, c. 7. 0 5), but he
here uses the term carelessly, and in a better sense, for that sort of
democracy which is akin to the p&v roa17cia.xarh plp09. 1 IO.
Generally ‘ in turn,’ but the examples show that the phrase must
here mean ‘ by sections’ or by different bodies or magistracies.’T&V ahhv 82 rp6aov mi ncpi Kapm8dva’ nciaas ydp dpxai +wcs K~;VOVUL 1. I 1
+AS airtap.
rb asv, i. e. because in both these cases the administration of
Justice is taken out of the hands of the people and entrusted to the
magistrates, either the same or different magistrates.
The oligarchies or aristocracies of Carthage and Sparta are here
contrasted, not with each other, but with democracy. A minor
difference between them is also hinted at: at Carthage there were
regular magistrates to whom all causes were referred ; at Lacedae-