336 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



not until a moral inherent strength arises sujQficient to burst the 

 fetters of despotism, is a people lit for a better or milder form of 

 government ; for not until this inherent power is manifest is there 

 sufficient cohesive force in society to hold it together without being 

 hooped by some such band as despotism. Besides thus cementing 

 society, w^ar generates many virtues, such as courage, discipline, 

 obedience, chivalrous bearing, noble thought ; and the virtues of war, 

 as well as its vices, help to mould national character. 



Slavery to the present day has its defenders, and from the first it 

 has been a preventive of a worse evil slaughter. Savages make 

 slaves of their prisoners of war, and if they do not preserve them for 

 slaves they kill them. The origin of the word, servus^ from servare, 

 to preserve, denotes humane thought rather than cruelty. Discipline 

 is always necessary to development, and slavery is another form of 

 savage discipline. Then, by systems of slavery, great works were 

 accomplished, which, in the absence of arts and inventions, would not 

 have been possible without slavery. And again, in early societies 

 where leisure is so necessary to mental cultivation and so difficult to 

 obtain, slavery, by promoting leisure, aids elevation and refinement. 

 Slaves constitute a distinct class, devoted wholly to labor, thereby 

 enabling another class to live without labor, or to labor with the 

 intellect rather than with the hands. 



Primordially, society was an aggregation of nomadic families, 

 every head of a family having equal rights, and every individual such 

 power and influence as he could acquire and maintain. In all the 

 ordinary avocations of savage life this was sufficient; there was room 

 for all, and the widest liberty was possessed by each. And in this 

 happy state does mankind ever remain until forced out of it. In unity 

 and cooperation alone can great things be accomplished ; but men 

 will not unite until forced to it. Now, in times of war and with 

 savages war is the rule and not the exception some closer union is 

 necessary to avoid extinction; for, other things being equal, the people 

 who are most firmly united and most strongly ruled are sure to pre- 

 vail in war. The idea of unity in order to be effectual must be em- 

 bodied in a unit ; some one must be made chief, and the others must 

 obey, as in a band of wild beasts that follow the one most conspicuous 

 for its prowess and cunning. But the military principle alone would 

 never lay the foundation of a strong government, for with every cessa- 

 tion from hostilities there would be a corresponding relaxation of gov- 

 ernment. 



Another necessity for government here arises, but which likewise 

 is not the cause of government, for government springs from force and 

 not from utility. These men do not want government, they do not 

 want culture ; how, then, is an arm to be found sufficiently strong to 

 bridle their wild passions ? In reason they are children, in passion, 

 men ; to restrain the strong passions of strong, non-reasoning men 



