SAFAGISM AND CIVILIZATION. 337 



requires a power ; whence is this power to come ? It is in the earlier 

 stage of government that despotism assumes its most intense forms. 

 The more passionate, and laAvless, and cruel the people, the moi'e com- 

 pletely do they submit to a passionate, lawlchs, and cruel prince ; the 

 more ungovernable their nature, tlie more slavish are they in their 

 submission to government ; the stronger the element to be governed, 

 the stronger must be the government. 



The primitive man, whoever or whatcA'er that maybe, lives in har- 

 mony with Kature ; that is, he lives as other animals live, drawing his 

 supplies immediately from the general storehouse of Nature. His food 

 he plucks from a sheltering tree, or draws from a sparkling stream, or 

 captures from a prolific forest. The remnants of his captui-e, unfit for 

 food, supply his other wants ; with the skin he clothes himself, and 

 with the bones makes implements and points his weapons. In this 

 there are no antagonisms, no opposing principles of good and evil ; 

 animals are killed not with a view of extermination, but through 

 necessity, as animals kill animals in order to supply actual wants. 

 But no sooner does the leaven of progress begin to work than war is 

 declared between man and Nature. To make room for denser popula- 

 tions and increasing comforts, forests must be hewn down, their pri- 

 meval inhabitants extirpated or domesticated, and the soil laid under 

 more direct contribution. Union and cooperation spring up for pur- 

 poses of protection and aggression, for the accomplishment of purposes 

 beyond the capacity of the individual. Gradually mamifactures and 

 commerce increase ; the products of one body of laborers are ex- 

 changed for the products of another, and thus the aggregate comforts 

 produced are doubled to each. Absolute power is taken from the 

 hands of the many and placed in the hands of one, who becomes the 

 representative power of all. Men are no longer dependent upon the 

 chase for a daily supply of food ; even agriculture no longer is a ne- 

 cessity which each must follow for himself, for the intellectual prod- 

 ucts of one person or people may be exchanged for the agricultural 

 products of another. With these changes of occupation new institu- 

 tions spring up, new ideas originate, and new habits are formed. Hu- 

 man life ceases to be a purely material existence; another element 

 iinds exercise, the other part of man is permitted to grow. The ener- 

 gies of society now assume a different shape ; hitherto the daily strug- 

 gle was for daily necessities, now the accumulation of wealth consti- 

 tutes the chief incentive to labor. Wealth becomes a power and 

 absorbs all other powers. The possessor of unlimited wealth com- 

 mands the products of every other man's labor. 



But, in time, and to a certain extent, a class arises already pos- 

 sessed of wealth sufficient to satisfy even the demands of avarice, and 

 something still bettor, some greater good is yet sought for. Money- 

 getting gives way before intellectual cravings. The self-denials and 

 labor necessary to the acquisition of wealth are abandoned for the en- 



VOL. vii. 22 



