HISTORICAL METHOD. 519 



became disorganized from within ; mutual conflict for seltish 

 ends, neutralized the energies which were required to keep 

 up the contest against natural causes of evil ; and the 

 nation, after a longer or briefer interval of progressive decline, 

 became either the slave of a despotism, or the prey of a foreign 

 invader. 



&quot; The second condition of permanent political society has 

 been found to be, the existence, in some form or other, of the 

 feeling of allegiance or loyalty. This feeling may vary in its 

 objects, and is not confined to any particular form of govern 

 ment ; but whether in a democracy or in a monarchy, its 

 essence is always the same ; viz. that there be in the constitu 

 tion of the state something which is settled, something perma 

 nent, and not to be called in question; something which, by 

 general agreement, has a right to be where it is, and to be 

 secure against disturbance, whatever else may change. This 

 feeling may attach itself, as among the Jews (and in 

 most of the commonwealths of antiquity), to a common God 

 or gods, the protectors and guardians of their state. Or it 

 may attach itself to certain persons, who are deemed to be, 

 whether by divine appointment, by long prescription, or by 

 the general recognition of their superior capacity and worthi 

 ness, the rightful guides and guardians of the rest. Or it may 

 connect itself with laws ; with ancient liberties or ordinances. 

 Or, finally, (and this is the only shape in which the feeling 

 is likely to exist hereafter,) it may attach itself to the prin 

 ciples of individual freedom and political and social equality, 



, as realized in institutions which as yet exist nowhere, or exist 

 only in a rudimentary state. But in all political societies 



( which have had a durable existence, there has been some fixed 

 point : something which people agreed in holding sacred ; 

 which, wherever freedom of discussion was a recognised prin 

 ciple, it was of course lawful to contest in theory, but which 

 no one could either fear or hope to see shaken in practice ; 

 which, in short (except perhaps during some temporary crisis) 

 was in the common estimation placed beyond discussion. 

 And the necessity of this may easily be made evident. A 

 state never is, nor until mankind are vastly improved, can 



