5 8z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



developed thought." These ideas, he claims, account for primitive 

 doctrines of immortality, which latter beget the worship of ancestors. 

 Whether or not this theory of Spencer's, or Coulange's theory that 

 early ideas of generation and creation afford the clew to the mystery, 

 satisfactorily accounts for this primitive practice, the fact nevertheless 

 remains, that the deification of the dead is the oldest religion known 

 to men, which religion is the efficient cause of ancient social organiza- 

 tion, the essential principle of archaic institutions, archaic morals, and 

 archaic laws. 



As to what those institutions and laws were, a simple discussion of 

 the scope of comparative jurisprudence does not afford opportunity 

 for inquiry. That they were utterly different from those of our own 

 day may, however, be said. It seems to us, regarding law by the light 

 of reason alone, that it must be somewhat more than immemorial 

 usage, that it should acknowledge the principle of amendment and 

 growth, and that it is something separate and distinct from religion ; 

 and yet ancient societies had an entirely different notion of it, regard- 

 ing it as the revelation of some deity, hallowed by custom, and abso- 

 lutely immutable in its principles, being nothing less than " religion 

 applied to the relations of men among themselves." And so it would 

 seem, from the reason of the thing, that there must always have been 

 a law of contract as known to us, yet society had become far advanced 

 in civilization before any such law was recognized and formulated. It 

 would seem that the individual must always have held property in his 

 own right, must always have been at liberty to dispose of it by some 

 method of alienation during his life, and prescribed by will or testa- 

 ment some disposition of it after his death ; and yet individual prop- 

 erty and rights of alienation and testamentary bequest are, so to 

 speak, new-fangled notions. In the same way we have come to re- 

 gard local contiguity as the only possible basis of common political 

 action ; nevertheless, it is but yesterday that our AVestern world out- 

 grew the assumption that community of worship or of blood was the 

 sole natural ground of community in political organization. In like 

 manner, we have been taught to believe that the individual is the ne- 

 cessary unit of society, and yet in all archaic societies the family is the 

 only conceivable unit. And so the theory of relationship recognized 

 by or law is apparently the only one which right reason can suggest ; 

 yet that theory would have appeared strange and unnatural to an 

 ancient Brahman, or a Roman judge at the time of the Twelve 

 Tables. Thus, "in its leading characteristics," to quote Mr. Hearn, 

 "political, legal, religious, economic, archaic society presents a com- 

 plete contrast to that in which we live. There was in it no central 

 government, and consequently there were no political organs. There 

 was no law to make, there was none to be executed. There were 

 neither parliaments, nor courts of justice, nor executive officers. There 

 was no national Church. The great bulk of property, not only as to 



