THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



FEBRUARY, 1878. 



EVOLUTION OF CEREMONIAL GOVERNMENT. 



By IIEEBEKT SPENCER. 

 I. INTRODUCTORY. 



IF, excluding all purely private actions, we include under the name 

 " conduct " all actions which involve direct relations with other 

 persons ; and if under the name " government " we include all con- 

 trol of such conduct, however arising ; then we must say that the 

 earliest kind of government, the most general kind of government, 

 and the government which is ever spontaneously recommencing, is 

 the government of ceremonial observance. More than this is true. 

 Not simply does this kind of government precede other kinds, and 

 not only has it in all places and times approached nearer to univer- 

 sality of influence, but it has ever had, and continues to have, the 

 lai-gest share in regulating men's lives. 



Proof that the modifications of conduct called " manners " and 

 " behavior " arise long before those which political and religious re- 

 straints cause, is yielded by the fact that, besides preceding social 

 evolution, they precede human evolution : they are traceable among 

 the higher animals. The dog afraid of being beaten, comes crawling 

 up to his master, clearly manifesting the desire to submit. Nor is 

 it solely to human beings that dogs use such propitiatory actions : 

 they do the like one to another. All have occasionally seen how, on 

 the approach of some formidable-looking Newfoundland or mastiff, a 

 small spaniel, in the extremity of its terror, throws itself on its back 

 with legs in the air. Instead of threatening resistance by growls and 

 showing of teeth, as it might have done had not resistance been 

 hopeless, it spontaneously assumes the attitude that would result from 

 defeat in battle, tacitly saying, " I am conquered, and at your mercy." 

 Clearly, then, besides certain modes of behavior expressing affection, 

 vol. xii. 25 



