THE MILITANT TYPE OF SOCIETY. 751 



in proportion as its corporate action is the more complete. For pur- 

 poses of offense and defense, the forces of individuals have to be com- 

 bined ; and, where every individual contributes his force, the proba- 

 bility of success is greatest. Numbers, natures, and circumstances 

 being equal, it is clear that of two tribes or two larger societies, one 

 of which unites the actions of all its capable members while the other 

 does not, the first will ordinarily be the victor. There must be an 

 habitual survival of communities in which militant cooperation is uni- 

 versal. 



This proposition approaches very nearly to a truism. But it is need- 

 ful here, as a preliminary, clearly to recognize the truth that the social 

 structure evolved by chronic militancy is one in which all men fit for 

 fighting act in concert against other societies. Such further actions as 

 they carry on they can carry on separately ; but this action they must 

 carry on jointly. 



A society's power of self-preservation will be great in proportion 

 as, besides the direct aid of all who can fight, there is given the in- 

 direct aid of all who can not fight. Supposing them otherwise similar, 

 those communities will survive in which the efforts of combatants are 

 in the greatest degree seconded by those of non-combatants. In a 

 purely militant society, therefore, individuals who do not bear arms 

 have to spend their lives in furthering the maintenance of those who 

 do. Whether, as happens at first, the non-combatants are exclusively 

 the women ; or whether, as happens later, the class includes enslaved 

 captives ; or whether, as happens later still, it includes serfs, the im- 

 plication is the same. For, if, of two societies equal in other respects, 

 the first wholly subordinates its workers in this way, while the workers 

 in the second are allowed to retain for themselves the produce of their 

 labor, or more of it than is needful for maintaining them, then, in 

 the second, the warriors, not otherwise supported or supported less 

 fully than they might else be, will have partially to support them- 

 selves, and will be so much the less available for war purposes. Hence, 

 in the struggle for existence between such societies, it must usually 

 happen that the first will vanquish the second. The type of society 

 produced by survival of the fittest w^ll be one in which the fighting 

 part includes all who can bear arms and be trusted with arms, while 

 the remaining part serves simply as a parmanent commissariat. 



An obvious implication, of a significance to be hereafter pointed 

 out, is that the non-combatant part, occupied in supporting the com- 

 batant part, can not with advantage to the self-preserving power of 

 the society increase beyond the limit at which it efficiently fulfills its 

 purpose. For, otherwise, some who mi^ht be fighters are superfluous 

 workers ; and the fighting power of the society is made less than it 

 might be. Hence, in the militant type, the tendency is for the body 

 of warriors to bear the largest practicable ratio to the body of workers. 



