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the natural aad fructifying influences of society. From which it must be 

 inferred that justice — which is but the maintenance of the rights or just 

 liberty of the individual — demands that the largest liberty should be 

 accorded to him that is compatible with the highest development of all, 

 and no more, (e) 



Hence, we may say, that justice, though the immediate and direct end 

 of the State, is but subsidiary and subordinate to its ultimate end ; which 

 is the maintenance and healthy development of society, iu its highest 

 form. (/) 



The genesis of society, as of the individual, is natural and spontaneous. 

 Men naturally and inevitably place themselves, or are placed, in social 

 groups, such as the family, the village, town, or city, or neighborhood ; 

 and in mauy other kinds of associations, whether incorporated or other- 

 wise, such as churches, schools, colleges, and associations for friendship, 

 charity, business and other purposes, and finally in the State and in the 

 world community of civilized nations ; to which is to be added that great 

 society of the living and the dead, of which literature makes us members. 

 By tlie influence of these associations, the manners, beliefs, tastes, aspi- 

 rations, ideals, and ambitions, and consequently the character, career and 

 fortunes of the individual are to a large extent determined. So that it 

 may be said, without much exaggeration, that the modern man is almost 

 wholly the product of ihe social influences to which he has been sub- 

 jected, and that it is these alone that have difTereniiated him from the 

 primitive savage. 



The development of the society which we call the State, like that of 

 the individual, is also in the main spontaneous, being determined by the 

 resultant of the characters of its individual members, and subordinate 

 social groups, by the influence of other States,and by its own history. If 

 we regard it (as, for the sake of illustration we may — though such analo- 

 gies are dangerous), as a body politic, or fictitious or imaginary person, it 

 may be said that its growth, like that of the individual man, is natural 

 and organic, and that undue interference with its natural development 

 must result in death or disease ; and hence, in general, the function of 

 government is merely to protect it from interference by force or fraud. 



But the State, like the individual, is subject to evil influences, intellec- 

 tual, moral, and physical, by which its opinions are vitiated, its morality 

 corrupted, and its health deteriorated ; among which often the most serious 

 is the evil influence of its own government. The result is, that it often 

 loses the capacity for healthful development, either wholly — as in the 

 later Roman Empire, and in Turkey, Ciiina, India and Asiatic countries 

 generally — or partially — as is generally more or less the case with our- 

 selves and other European peoples. Here, then, it seems to be an obvi- 

 ous function of government, not only to remove the e\il influences which 

 liave caused the disease, but also, if possible, to cure the disease itself, by 

 directing and encouraging the social progress ; nor does it seem less appa- 

 rent that it is also its function to check in the beginning any tendency to 



