1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 271 



them. On the contrary, it becomes more pronounced and 

 pervasive as life climbs upward to higher forms and more 

 affluent conditions. For, while life is wonderfully flexible, 

 adapting itself to its surroundings with great facility, and 

 while the heirs of the ages are the richer because of what 

 past generations have accumulated for them, still the essence 

 of life remains the same under all conditions and through all 

 mutations. 



Life is a battle-field ; and, while civilization has modified 

 the conditions of strife and changed somewhat its arena, the 

 fact of strife remains. The universal reign of peace is still 

 the dream of the enthusiast, visible only in the dim future, 

 an uncertain prospect ; and, I may add, a doubtful good. 



It could not have taken the most sluggish intellect long to 

 perceive that in this strife the one who stood alone was 

 doomed to defeat and early extinction. Two are stronger 

 than one ; many are more powerful than few ; and, in a com- 

 bination for defense, what each does for all the rest, he does 

 for himself as well. And, following very closely in the foot- 

 steps of this idea of personal security through association, 

 there must have come the idea of territorial security. So 

 long as antagonistic groups of men claimed the same terri- 

 tory, security could be maintained only by constant readiness 

 to fight. But, if each such group occupied its own ground, 

 with defined limits and a conceded right, peace between 

 them might be maintained so long as these territorial rights 

 were regarded. Upon these two closely related ideas of 

 personal security and territorial integrity, established and 

 maintained through association, the wonderfully varied and 

 complex structure of human government has been built. 

 These are the strong foundations which bear up this all-com- 

 prehending, involuntary association, which the rudest forms 

 of social life cannot do without, but which finds its widest 

 scope and shows its best type where civilization is most 

 advanced. Until human government was established, life 

 could have been but little more than mere existence. But, 

 where a degree of security had been established which would 

 permit the growth of the arts of peace, and life began to take 

 on breadth and variety, other associations became necessary 

 for the development and expression of the fuller life. And 



