The Destiny of Man. 87 



est method was that of conquest without 

 incorporation. A single powerful tribe con- 

 quered and annexed its neighbours with- 

 out admitting them to a share in the gov- 

 ernment. It appropriated their military 

 strength, robbed them of most of the 

 fruits of their labour, and thus virtually 

 enslaved them. Such was the origin of the 

 great despotic empires of Oriental type. 

 Such states degenerate rapidly in military 

 strength. Their slavish populations, ac- 

 customed to be starved and beaten or mas- 

 sacred by the tax-gatherer, become unable 

 to fight, so that great armies of them will 

 flee before a handful of freemen, as in the 

 case of the ancient Persians and the mod- 

 ern Egyptians. To strike down the ex- 

 ecutive head of such an assemblage of en- 

 slaved tribes is to effect the conquest or 

 the dissolution of the whole mass, and 

 hence the history of Eastern peoples has 

 been characterized by sudden and gigantic 

 revolutions. 



The second method of forming great 



