LAWS. 



523 



the law become offences against the king, and the crime of 

 disobedience a crime of contempt to be expiated by a special 

 sort of fine.&quot; And we may easily see how, where a ruler 

 gains absolute power, and especially where he has the prestige 

 of divine origin, the guilt of contempt comes to exceed the 

 intrinsic guilt of the forbidden act. 



A significant truth may be added. On remembering that 

 Peru, and Japan till lately, above named as countries in 

 which the crime of disobedience to the ruler was considered 

 so great as practically to equalize the flagitiousness of all 

 forbidden acts, had societies in which militant organization, 

 carried to its extreme, assimilated the social government at 

 large to the government of an army ; we are reminded that 

 even in societies like our own, there is maintained in the 

 army the doctrine that insubordination is the cardinal 

 offence. Disobedience to orders is penal irrespective of the 

 nature of the orders or the motive for the disobedience ; and 

 an act which, considered in itself, is quite innocent, may be 

 visited with death if done in opposition to commands. 



While, then, in that enforced conformity to inherited 

 customs which plays the part of law in the earliest btages, we 

 see insisted upon the duty of obedience to ancestois at large, 

 irrespective of the injunctions to be obeyed, which are 

 often trivial or absurd while in the enforced conformity to 

 special directions given in oracular utterances by priests, or in 

 &quot; themistes,&quot; &c., which form a supplementary source of law, 

 we see insisted upon the duty of obedience, in small things 

 as in great, to certain recognized spirits of the dead, or deities 

 derived from them ; we also see that obedience to the edicts 

 of tlie terrestrial ruler, whatever they may be, becomes, as his 

 power grows, a primary duty. 



533. What has been said in the foregoing sections brings 

 out with clearness the truth that rules for the regulation of 

 conduct have four sources. Even in early stages we see that 

 beyond the inherited usages which have a quasi-religious sane- 



