Sentence:  One circumſtance ... peculiar to the Germanic empire, is the diſtinction between its mediate and immediate members. In the ſame manner as two objects which we may ſuppose to have relation to each other, are immediately related, when there is no third object intervening, but otherwiſe only mediate. This may be illuſtrated by the example of the connexion between a <WSD>grandfather</WSD> and his children, who may be ſaid to be mediately related; while the relation between the parents and children, on the contrary, is immediate; ... 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A father of someone's parent. (from 15th c.)