198 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



power sufficient to keep society from falling to 

 pieces, or there could have been no progress at 

 all; and the only such power conceivable was 

 that total subjection of the many to the few 

 which constitutes the protective system of gov- 

 ernment. As long as Persians mutilated each 

 other, and Carthaginians burned their children, 

 and Chinamen beat to death their wives ; as 

 long as Hindus practised thuggee, and Spartans 

 practised stealing, and lonians pra'ctised piracy, 

 there must have been " Drakonian statutes writ- 

 ten in blood," there must have been absolute des- 

 potism. Without this, society would have become 

 a parcel of units. Imagine a republic of Tatars, 

 a constitutional democracy of Vandals, and de- 

 velop the consequences ! 



Thus in the primitive stage of civilization the 

 protective spirit played the same part as universal 

 credulity in preserving society from disintegration. 

 Thus it becomes more evident than before that 

 scepticism would have been harmful at that early 

 period. It would have weakened the protective 

 spirit and destroyed allegiance, besides causing 

 religious dissension. Nothing of the kind was 

 then admissible. The selfish and brutal feelings 

 of men had to be restrained, and their social and 

 humane feelings called forth, before the sceptical 



