EVOLUTION OF CEREMONIAL GOVERNMENT. 25 



was the only one among them whose views reached far beyond his spe- 

 cial field of knowledge, and, for this reason, he knew how to adapt the 

 style of his writings to the requirements of cultivated society. 



In conclusion, I should like to draw attention to one thing. None 

 of these four men, who achieved lasting fame in so many different 

 branches of science, had been originally destined for scientific pursuit. 

 What they were and what they achieved were due to themselves and 

 to their iron will. Becquerel had left the Polytechnic School in 1808, 

 in his twentieth year, had become a lieutenant of engineers, had been 

 promoted to the command of a battalion in the Spanish campaigns, and 

 left the service after the battle of Waterloo in order to devote himself 

 to the study of physics ; Leverrier and Regnault had originally been 

 clerks in stores, and had studied in their leisure hours until they were 

 able to gain admittance to the Polytechnic School; Claude Bernard 

 had come to Paris with hardly anything in his pocket but a tragedy, 

 and he had first dabbled in literature. Hard, indescribably hard work, 

 untold privations, and struggles of all kinds, enabled these men to 

 attain the high position which they will always hold in the history of 

 science. To them may be applied what one of my friends once said in 

 regard to an eminent savant : " Dans sa jeunesse il a tire le diable 2?ar 

 la queue et mange de la vache enragee ; mais il a reussi, parce qu'il 

 avait le feu sacre ! " 



EVOLUTION OF CEREMONIAL GOVERNMENT. 



By HERBERT SPENCER. 



IT. PRESENTS. 



WHEN we read that Cook " presented the king [of Otaheitej with 

 two large hatchets, some showy beads, a looking-glass, a knife, 

 and some nails ; " or when Speke, describing his reception by the King 

 of Uganda, narrates " I then said I had brought the best shooting-gun 

 in the world Whitworth's rifle which I begged he would accept, with 

 a few other trifles " we are reminded how travelers in general, coming 

 in contact with strange peoples, propitiate them by gifts. Two concom- 

 itant results are achieved. There is the immediate gratification caused 

 by the worth of the thing given, which tends to beget a friendly mood 

 in those approached ; and there is the tacit expression of a desire to 

 please, which has a like effect. It is from the last of these that the de- 

 velopment of gift-making as a ceremony proceeds. 



The alliance between mutilations and presents between offering a 

 part of the body and offering something else is well shown by a state- 

 ment of Garcilasso, respecting the ancient Peruvians ; which, at the 

 same time, shows how present-making becomes a propitiatory act apart 



