770 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fensive action that failure and subjugation, will, other things equal, be 

 likely to result. Hence the sentiment of patriotism will be established 

 by the survival of societies the members of which are most character- 

 ized by it. 



With this there needs to be united the instinct of obedience. The 

 possibility of that united action by which, other things equal, war is 

 made successful, depends on the readiness of individuals to subordinate 

 their wills to the will of a commander or ruler. Loyalty is essential. 

 In early stages the manifestation of it is but temporary, as among the 

 Araucanians, who, ordinarily showing themselves "repugnant to all 

 subordination, are then (when war is impending) prompt to obey, and 

 submissive to the will of their military sovereign " appointed for the 

 occasion. And with development of the militant type this sentiment 

 becomes permanent. Thus, Erskine tells us that the Feejeeans are in- 

 tensely loyal : men buried alive in the foundations of a king's house 

 considered themseves honored by being so sacrificed ; and the people 

 of a slave district " said it was their duty to become food and sacrifice 

 for the chiefs." So in Dahomey there is felt for the king " a mixture 

 of love and fear, little short of adoration." In ancient Egypt, again, 

 where " blind obedience was the oil which caused the harmonious work- 

 ing of the machinery " of social life, the monuments on every side show 

 with wearisome iteration the daily acts of subordination of slaves and 

 others to the dead man, of captives to the king, of the king to the 

 gods. Though, for reasons already pointed out, chronic war did not 

 generate in Sparta a supreme political head, to whom there could be 

 shown implicit obedience, yet the obedience shown to the political 

 agency which grew up was profound : individual wills were in all 

 things subordinate to the public will expressed by the established au- 

 thorities. In primitive Rome, too, in the absence of a divinely-de- 

 scended king to whom submission could be shown, there was submis- 

 sion to an appointed king, qualified only by expressions of opinion on 

 special occasions ; and the principle of absolute obedience, slightly 

 mitigated in the relations of the community as a whole to its ruling 

 agency, was unmitigated within its component groups. And that 

 throughout European history, alike on small and on large scales, we 

 see the sentiment of loyalty dominant where the militant type of 

 structure is pronounced, is a truth that will be admitted without de- 

 tailed proof. 



From these conspicuous traits of nature let us turn to certain con- 

 sequent traits which are less conspicuous, and which have results of 

 less manifest kinds. Along with loyalty naturally goes faith the 

 two being, indeed, scarcely separable. Readiness to obey the com- 

 mander in war implies belief in his military abilities ; and readiness 

 to obey him during peace implies belief that his abilities extend to 

 civil affairs also. Imposing on men's imaginations, each new conquest 

 augments his authority. There come more frequent and more decided 



