592 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



actions), may presently become positive (commanding cer* 

 tain other actions). This happens when the group of which 

 he is a member, carries on hostilities with other such groups. 

 The aggregate will then often dictates actions to which he 

 may be averse forces him to fight under penalty of repro 

 bation, ill-treatment, and perhaps expulsion. This master- 

 hood of the community is greater or less according as its 

 original cause, external antagonism, is greater or less; and 

 the question arising at the beginning of social evolution, 

 and dominant throughout its successive stages, is How 

 much is each subject to all and how much independent of 

 all ? To what extent does he own himself and to what extent 

 is he owned by others? 



This antithesis, here presented in the abstract, has been 

 frequently in the foregoing work presented in the concrete. 

 At the one extreme we have the Eskimo, who cannot be said 

 to form a society in the full sense of the word, but simply 

 live in juxtaposition; and, not even knowing what war is, 

 have no need for combined action and consequent subjection 

 of the individual will to the general will. And again we 

 have those few peaceful tribes, several times referred to 

 ( 260, 327, 573), who, in like manner not called on to act 

 together against external foes, live in amity with one an 

 other; and, individually owning themselves completely, are 

 controlled only on those rare occasions \vhen some small 

 transgression calls for notice of the elders. At the other 

 extreme stand the societies devoted to war, whose members 

 belong entirely to the State. In ancient times we have, for 

 instance, the Spartans, who, severally owning their helots, 

 were themselves owned by the community; and, living in 

 common on food contributed by all, were severally com 

 pelled by their incorporated fellows to pass their lives either 

 in fighting or in preparation for fighting. In modern timos 

 an example is furnished by the Dahomans with their army 

 of amazons, whose king has a bed-room paved with the skulls 

 of conquered chiefs, and makes war to obtain, as he says, 



