CHAPTEK I. 



PROFESSIONS IN GENERAL. 



661. WHAT character professional institutions have in 

 common, by which they are as a group distinguished from 

 the other groups of institutions contained in* a society, it is 

 not very easy to say. But we shall be helped to frame an 

 approximately true conception by contemplating in their 

 ultimate natures the functions of the respective groups. 



The lives of a society and of its members are in one way 

 or other subserved by all of them: maintenance of the life 

 of a society, which is an insentient organism, being proper 

 proximate end only as a means to the ultimate end mainte 

 nance of the lives of its members, which are sentient or 

 ganisms. The primary function, considered either in order 

 of time or in order of importance, is defence of the tribal 

 or national life the preservation of the society from de 

 struction by enemies. For the better achievement of this 

 end there presently comes some regulation of life. Re 

 straints on individual action are needful for the efficient 

 carrying on of war, which implies subordination to a leader 

 or chief; and when successful leadership ends in perma 

 nent chieftainship, it brings, in course of further develop 

 ment, such regulation of life within the society as conduces 

 to efficiency for war purposes. Better defence against ene 

 mies, thus furthered, is followed by defence of citizens 

 against one another; and the rules of conduct, originally 

 imposed by the successful chief, come, after his decease, to 



be reinforced by the injunctions ascribed to his ghost. So 



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