THE MILITANT TYPE OF SOCIETY. 577 



are incongruous with social arrangements based on the prin 

 ciple of compulsory cooperation. Hence the militant type 

 is characterized by the absence, or comparative rarity, of 

 bodies of citizens associated for commercial purposes, for 

 propagating special religious views, for achieving philan 

 thropic ends, &c. 



Private combinations of one kind, however, are congruous 

 with the militant type the combinations, namely, which are 

 formed for minor defensive or offensive purposes. We have, 

 as examples, those which constitute factions, very general in 

 militant societies ; those which belong to the same class as 

 primitive guilds, serving for mutual protection ; and those 

 which take the shape of secret societies. Of such bodies it 

 may be noted that they fulfil on a small scale ends like those 

 which the whole society fulfils on a large scale the ends of 

 self-preservation, or aggression, or both. And it may be 

 further noted that these small included societies are organized 

 on the same principle as the large including society the 

 principle of compulsory cooperation. Their governments are 

 coercive : in some cases even to the extent of killing those of 

 their members who are disobedient. 



557. A remaining fact to be set down is that a society 

 of the militant type tends to evolve a self-sufficient sustain 

 ing organization. With its political autonomy there goes 

 what we may call an economic autonomy. Evidently if it 

 carries on frequent wars against surrounding societies, its 

 commercial intercourse with them must be hindered or pre 

 vented : exchange of commodities can go on to but a small 

 extent between those who are continually fighting. A mili 

 tant society must, therefore, to the greatest degree practicable, 

 provide internally the supplies of all articles needful for 

 carrying on the lives of its members. Such an economic 

 state as that which existed during early feudal times, when, 

 as in France, &quot; the castles made almost all the articles used 

 iii them/ is a state evidently entailed on groups, small or 



