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38 the end itself. Thus the society called the British Empire consists of all Queen Victoria's subjects, linked together by the observance of the laws of the Empire, for the attainment of temporal prosperity.

Of these elements it is plain that the first three form, as it were, the matter, or vague, undetermined part, and the last, the determining element, or form of the society. The end determines the means and is the vital principle of the whole structure. The means employed by a society whose aim is life everlasting, must be totally different from those made use of by the State, whose end is temporal welfare. The means employed for the attainment of the end of a literary club are not those employed by a railway company. The social means therefore, and, consequently the very nature of a society, are to be determined from its scope.

Now for the distinction between perfect and imperfect societies. I said in a former pamphlet that the State is a perfect, a railway company an imperfect so ciety. The imperfect society aims at a partial attainment of the end of the perfect society; the perfect society contains within itself the imperfect society, and is contained within no other having the same end as itself. There are but two perfect societies—the Church and the State, each, in its own sphere, independent and supreme; and every other society must be a part of one or of the other of these two.

But here I have been stating what I wish to prove, to wit, that the Church is a society. Well, let us see whether she has the four elements of the definition.

First, does she consist of a multitude of men? The answer is plain. Was it her Founder's will that these