PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 49 



end of this century. The real danger is that gold will fall so 

 much as to cause a contraction of credits ; for no one will volun- 

 tarily give credit in a falling commodity or depreciating money 

 standard. As the greater part of the world's business is done on 

 credit, this possibility is most serious. It would be difficult to 

 borrow large sums on long time for the construction of railways 

 and other great works if capitalists were convinced that after ten 

 or twenty years they would receive in full payment of a dollar of 

 the present value of one hundred cents a dollar of the value of 

 seventy-five cents. 



Probably, however, the world will soon get used to the great 

 increase in gold production, and cease to pay any attention to it, 

 as was the case in the Californian period. Now, as then, we may 

 expect that the vast gold production now going on will result in 

 a rise of the general price level, in wages, and in the great relief 

 of the debtor class. Barring the possibility of foolish experi- 

 ments in currency legislation, which, in spite of much noise in 

 irresponsible quarters, is but small, we are entering on an era of 

 great prosperity, where all business will sail along triumphantly 

 on an ever-rising tide of gold. 



-- 



PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



VII. JUDGE AND LAWYER. 

 By HEEBERT SPENCER. 



IN the preceding division of this work, and more particularly 

 in 529, it was shown that in early societies such regulation 

 of conduct as is effected by custom, and afterward by that hard- 

 ened form of custom called law, originates in the expressed or im- 

 plied wills of ancestors primarily those of the undistinguished 

 dead, and secondarily those of the distinguished dead. Regard 

 for the wishes of deceased relatives greatly influences actions 

 among ourselves, and it influences them far more among savage 

 and semi-civilized peoples ; because such peoples think that the 

 spirits of the deceased are either constantly at hand or occasion- 

 ally return, and in either case will, if made angry, punish the 

 survivors by disease or misfortune. When, in the course of so- 

 cial development, there arise chiefs of unusual power, or con- 

 quering kings, the belief that their ghosts will wreak terrible ven- 

 geance on those who disregard their injunctions becomes a still 

 more potent controlling agency ; so that to regulation of con- 

 duct by customs inherited from ancestors at large, and ordinarily 

 enforced by the living ruler, there comes to be added regulation 

 by the transmitted commands of the dead ruler. 



VOL. XLVIII. 4 



