I PROLOGUE 53 



constantly bringing the social organisation to the 

 verge of destruction. Hence the prominence of 

 the positive rules of obedience to the elders ; of 

 standing by the family or the tribe in all emergen- 

 cies; of fulfilling the religious rites, non-observ- 

 ance of which is conceived to damage it with the 

 supernatural powers, belief in whose existence is 

 one of the earliest products of human thought; 

 and of the negative rules, which restrain each 

 from meddling with the life or property of 

 another. 



12. The highest conceivable form of human 

 society is that in which the desire to do what is 

 best for the whole, dominates and limits the 

 action of every member of that society. The 

 more complex the social organisation the greater 

 the number of acts from which each man must 

 abstain, if he desires to do that which is best for 

 all. Thus the progressive evolution of society 

 means increasing restriction of individual freedom 

 in certain directions. 



With the advance of civilisation, and the 

 growth of cities and of nations by the coalescence 

 of families and of tribes, the rules which con- 

 stitute the common foundation of morality and of 

 law became more numerous and complicated, and 

 the temptations to break or evade many of them 

 stronger. In the absence of a clear apprehen- 

 sion of the natural sanctions of these rules, a 

 supernatural sanction was assumed ; and imagina- 



