14 Social Environment 



plunderers. Whenever they were threatened 

 by the warlike chiefs of the plains they might 

 appeal to their overlord for protection, and the 

 valor that secured their safety eventually awa- 

 kened some measure of gratitude. So in time 

 the relation that had begun with brutality grew 

 into a somewhat tolerable reciprocity. 



Glancing ahead to the end of the story, we 

 may observe that such a relation between lord 

 and serf is looked upon as essentially the mod- 

 ern state in embryo, being the primary form 

 of property-owner and toiler. For, though 

 organization becomes more complex, individ- 

 uals change, and the rivalries of business sup- 

 plant in some measure the competition of war, 

 there is a kind of apostolic succession to be 

 discerned running on the one hand through 

 cattle chieftain, baron, landlord, and money 

 king, and on the other hand through slave, 

 serf, peasant, and factory hand. Kipling, with 

 his usual insight into the ways of empire, has 

 put the matter tersely in the following lines, 

 where he speaks for the toilers : 



We have fed you all for a thousand years, 



For that was our doom, you know, 

 From the days when you chained us in your fields 



To the strike of a week ago. 



