410 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE SURVIVAL OF POLITICAL SUPER- 

 STITIONS. 



AS explained by the law of evolu- 

 tion, progress is the result of 

 slow transformations in the parts of 

 adaptable organisms under changed con- 

 ditions. Still, influenced by the old 

 ideas that things were once suddenly 

 created and may be quickly changed, 

 we fail to appreciate the slowness of 

 the modifications that take place, and 

 how tenaciously old things survive and 

 live on in their essences, with only sufB- 

 cient alteration to justify the introduc- 

 tion of new names. 



We see this strikingly illustrated in 

 the history of government. There is 

 an enormous overvaluation in the im- 

 port of their changing forms. It was, 

 of course, a great event when we of 

 this country, a hundred years ago, re- 

 pudiated formal monarchy, and its aris- 

 tocratic and hierarchical appendages, 

 and adopted republican government in 

 its place, but the real value and extent 

 of the change have been in many re- 

 spects much magnified. Fundamental 

 ideas of the old order of things continue 

 in vigorous operation, with but very su- 

 perficial modification of character. 



For thousands of years the concep- 

 tions of government and of kingcraft 

 were identical. Nations appeared and 

 disappeared in the march of history; 

 empires rose and fell, systems of re- 

 ligion and systems of philosophy suc- 

 ceeded each other, knowledge aug- 

 mented and the literary arts were per- 

 fected in their different types, and great 

 civilizations unfolded and passed away, 

 and aU this while the forms of govern- 

 ment continued monarchical, and hu- 

 man society was governed by the su- 

 perstition that kings represent the gods 

 and are infallible. The overshadowing 

 and persistent superstition was that gov- 



ernment was supernaturally organized, 

 and that kings ruled by right divine. 

 We look upon this idea now as a mere 

 curious vestige of an empty illusion of 

 ages of ignorance, but it was an idea 

 of living application and tremendous 

 power. Men religiously believed in it 

 and thoroughly acquiesced in it. It was 

 broadly asserted alike by the occupants 

 of thrones and by the classes author- 

 ized to teach the people, and they ac- 

 cepted it as fundamental and sacred 

 political truth. The open avowal of 

 this doctrine comes down to quite mod- 

 ern times. The standard of loyalty ex- 

 acted by the sovereign was thus laid 

 down by King .James, the translator of 

 the Bible: " As it is atheism and blas- 

 phemy in a creature to dispute what 

 the Deity may do, so it is presumption 

 and sedition in a subject to dispute 

 what a Tcing-may do in the height of his 

 power ; good Christians wiU be content 

 with God's will revealed in his word, 

 and good subjects will rest in the king's 

 will revealed in his law." 



It is not yet two centuries since De 

 Foe could write in England as follows : 

 "It was for many years — and I am wit- 

 ness to it — that the pulpit sounded noth- 

 ing but absolute submission ; obedience 

 without reserve ; subjection to princes 

 as God's vicegerents ; accountable to 

 none ; to be withstood in nothing and 

 by no person. I have heard it pub- 

 licly preached that, if the king com- 

 manded my head, and sent his messen- 

 gers to fetch it, I was bound to submit, 

 and to stand stiU while it was cut olf." 



Now, it is not to be supposed that so 

 deep and long-established a sentiment, 

 by which the lives of generations were 

 regulated, was to be extirpated from 

 human nature, and dismissed to anni- 

 hilation in any short period of time. 

 Some features of it might fall away 



