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thirdly, men, as it were, by some instinct of their nature, in fact invol- 

 untarily, accept and submit to this test as a standard of practical morality; 

 for, as is well observed by Mill, "the customary morality, that which edu- 

 cation and opinion have consecrated, is the only one that presents itself 

 lo the mind with the feeling of being in itself obligatory." (g) 



All this is especially true with reference to that part of Morality that 

 deals with Right, or, in other words. Jurisprudence — the peculiar matter 

 with which government is concerned ; wilh reference to which it may be 

 asserted that the general conscience or positive morality of the commu- 

 nity is, in fact, ultimately, and in the long run, the paramount, predomi- 

 nating political force in the civilized world ; that it is this alone that 

 makes civilization possible ; and that in the superior development of the 

 sentiment of rights is to be found the essential difference by which modern 

 civilization is to be distinguished from that of the ancient world, and of 

 mferior civilizations generally ; and finally, as in the past, that all future 

 progress in political civilization must consist in the development and per- 

 fectionment of this sentiment. 



Summarizing these results, it will be observed, that the genesis, the 

 continued development, and the action of the State is, to a large extent, 

 automatic ; but, not wholly so. The State must exist ; and so far, it may 

 be said, its genesis, and its continued existence is a natural phenomenon ; 

 and it may be said also that its gradual development is largely of the same 

 character. But both in its original creation and subsequent development, 

 conscious, human agency concurs, and with advancing civilization, in an 

 increasing degree. So also, with regard to the conduct of the State, this, 

 while to a large extent automatic, is, also, to a large extent, determined 

 by conscious human agency. Hence, arises the obvious distinction be- 

 tween the functions of the State that are automatically performed, or, 

 more briefly, its automatic functions, and those that are performed by the 

 conscious agency of men ; the latter of which may be called political — as 

 being performed by government — and the former, non-political. 



Government, as we have observed, is, so far as our experience or obser- 

 vation goes, an invariable element in the form of the State, or, in other 

 words, the State has always manifested itself to us as politically organized; 

 and this may be assumed, therefore, as its normal character. In this 

 aspect, the State — i. e., the politically organized State — is to be regarded 

 — as we have heretofore observed — simply as a large corporation, or body 

 politic, differing in no essential particular from private corporations, ex- 

 cept that it is not, as in other cases, merely the result of human volition, 

 but to a large extent a natural growth, and, at least, to the extent of its 

 existence, a natural and, therefore, a necessary phenomenon. Hence, we 

 may regard the State, politically organized, as a fictitious, or imaginary 

 person, or being ; and this conception will be found extremely conve- 

 nient, and, provided we bear in mind that it is a pure fiction, also safe. 



Indeed, it is difficult, and perhaps impracticable, for us to dispense with 

 this mode of expression. For it is impossible not to recognize, or at 



