62 TEANSACTIONS OF THE 



and widens it out into the patriarchate and tribe — the earliest and 

 simplest forms of political society. 



Victor Cousin puts the sense of justice as the foundation principle 

 of the state; but justice is simply regulative, and serves only for 

 the organization and maintenance of a society already existent. It 

 builds a government to protect those whom the social instincts have 

 drawn together. 



III. 



Next to the vital wants, proceeding in the natural order, should 

 come, perhaps, the aesthetic tastes — the love of the beautiful and of 

 whatever inspires the higher emotions. The universality of the ses- 

 thetic feeling is proved by the fact that it is found in early childhood 

 and among savages as well as among the mature and the civilized. 

 Out of these tastes come the fine and decorative arts, sculpture, paint- 

 ing, architecture, landscape gardening, music and poetry, and all 

 the ornamentation of dress or abode, with the graceful forms and 

 bright coloring which men give to the commonest implements of 

 life. Public amusements, in nearly all their forms, are but an ap- 

 peal to some aesthetic principle, and what are known as the refine- 

 ments of civilization are but applications of the same principle. As 

 an element of civilization it is constant and often commanding, 

 giving its chief coloring to some of the most noted civilizations of 

 the world. 



IV. 



Advancing another step in our search we find in man, as a native 

 instinct, the love of knowledge or love of truth. It is the intellec- 

 tual appetite. It is shown in the tireless curiosity of childhood and 

 savages, and in the universal tendency of mankind to seek the 

 causes of phenomena. 



Out of this intellectual appetite springs another group of facts in 

 civilization — such as science, philosophy, literature, education, and 

 language itself. 



Whatever may have been the genesis of this power of thought, or 

 the steps in its evolution, it is one of the largest forces in civilization, 

 and it rises by a natural gravitation to the summit and dominates 

 and directs all others. It is by the aid of his intelligence that man 

 emerges from savagery, and achieves civilization. With the birth 

 of science, all arts, useful and fine, and all institutions, social and 

 political, take on new forms and rise to higher power? 



