THE NEW LEVIATHAN 397 



social aims and measures are indicated by the ways in 

 which a state is governed. 



The Autocratic State. In its internal organization, 

 the autocratic state seeks to increase its power by the 

 compulsory subordination of the weak to the strong. 

 Force, being the instrument of compulsion, thereby be- 

 comes the chief end and aim of the state, the ideal of all 

 its leaders, because it is the necessary means to all their 

 ends. 



In its external life, or in its relations to other states, 

 autocracy seeks to utilize the same methods. In both 

 cases, wherever it is possible to do so, rights are seized 

 by force, and obligations sheltered by force, thus sacri- 

 ficing the weak to fortify the strong in a vain effort to 

 perpetuate the system. 



The servant, whose will to endure is weakening, is 

 threatened by his master with greater ills to come; 

 bribed by the offset of prospective spoils, and stimulated 

 by the promise of increased power to rob the common 

 enemy. 



The constructive principles frankly recognized in 

 this unequal exchange, however they may be disguised 

 by high sounding names, are those of the slave driver, 

 the pirate, and the parasite. But all such one-sided 

 systems, as we have seen, are ultimately self-destruc- 

 tive, because the more they are perfected, the worse it is 

 for both master and servant; and the sooner the one is 

 forced, in self-defense, to prey upon the other. He 

 that takes something from his servant, and gives some- 

 thing less in return, tends to destroy the source of his 

 own power, for the servant that is not rightly served 



