The idea of a nation, though apparently clear, has been greatly misapprehended. Human society exists under forms most various. There are great agglomerations of men, as in China, Egypt, and ancient Babylonia; tribes, as among the Hebrews and the Arabs; cities, like Athens and Sparta; unions of different countries, as in the Achoemenidian, the Roman and the Carlovingiau empires; communities without a country, where the members are held together by a religious bond, like the Israelites and the Parsees; nations, like France, England, and most of the modern European autonomies; confederations, as in Switzerland and America; and relationships, such as race, or rather language, established among the ancient Germans and among the Slavonians; all of which are modes of grouping which exist, or have existed, and which can not be confounded with one another without most serious consequences.