742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



hordes, belonging to different varieties of man, which ai'e found here 

 and there over the earth, they show us that, in the absence of political 

 organization, little progress has taken place ; and, if we contemplate 

 those settled simple groups which have but nominal heads, we see 

 that, though there is some development of the industrial arts and some 

 cooperation, the degree of advance is but small. If, on the other 

 hand, we glance at those ancient societies in which considerable 

 heights of civilization were first reached, we see them under auto- 

 cratic rule. In America purely personal government, restricted only 

 by settled customs, characterized the Mexican, Central American, and 

 Chibcha states ; and in Peru the absolutism of the divine king was 

 unqualified. In Africa, ancient Egypt exhibited in the most conspic- 

 uous manner this connection between despotic control and social evo- 

 lution. Throughout the distant past it was repeatedly displayed in 

 Asia, from the Accadian civilization downward, and the still extant 

 civilizations of Siam, Burmah, China, and Japan reillustrate it. Early 

 European societies, too, where not characterized by centralized des- 

 potism, were still characterized by diffused patriarchal despotism. 

 Only among modern peoples, whose ancestors passed through the dis- 

 cipline given under this social form, and who have inherited its effects, 

 is there arising an habitual dissociation of civilization from subjection 

 to individual will. 



The necessity there has been for absolutism is best seen on observ- 

 ing that, in the struggles for existence among societies, those have 

 conquered which, other things equal, were the more subordinate to 

 their chiefs and kings. And, since in early stages military subordina- 

 tion and social subordination go together, it results that, for a long 

 time, the conquering societies continue to be the despotically governed 

 societies. Such exceptions as histories appear to show us really prove 

 the rule. In the conflict between Persia and Greece, the Greeks, but 

 for a mere accident, would have been ruined by that division of coun- 

 cils which results from absence of subjection to a single head. And 

 the habit of appointing a dictator, when in great danger from enemies, 

 implies that the Romans had discovered that efiiciency in war requires 

 absoluteness of control. 



So that, leaving open the question whether, in the absence of war, 

 primitive groups could ever have developed ilito civilized nations, we 

 conclude that, under such conditions as there have been, those strug- 

 gles for existence, among societies which have gone on consolidating 

 smaller into larger until great nations have been produced, necessitated 

 the development of a social type characterized by personal rule of a 

 stringent kind. 



To make clear the genesis of this leading political institution, let 

 us set down in brief the several influences which have conspired to 

 effect it, and the several stages passed through. 



