HISTORICAL METHOD. 601 



all such as tended towards them; this was the 

 purpose,, to which every outward motive that the 

 authority directing the system could command, and 

 every inward power or principle which its knowledge 

 of human nature enabled it to evoke, were endeavoured 

 to be rendered instrumental. This system of disci- 

 pline wrought, in the Grecian states, by the conjunct 

 influences of religion, poetry, and law; among the 

 Romans, by those of religion and law ; in modern and 

 Christian countries, mainly by religion, with little of 

 the direct agency, but generally more or less of the 

 indirect support and countenance, of law. And when- 

 ever and in proportion as the strictness of this 

 discipline was relaxed, the natural tendency of man- 

 kind to anarchy re-asserted itself; the state became 

 disorganized from within ; mutual conflict for selfish 

 ends, neutralized the energies which were required to 

 keep up the contest against natural causes of evil; 

 and the nation, after a longer or briefer interval of 

 progressive decline, became either the slave of a 

 despotism, or the prey of a foreign invader. 



"The second condition of permanent political 

 society has been found to be, the existence, in some 

 form or other, of the feeling of allegiance or loyalty. 

 This feeling may vary in its objects, and is not con- 

 fined to any particular form of government; but whe- 

 ther in a democracy or in a monarchy, its essence is 

 always the same; viz., that there be in the constitu- 

 tion of the state something which is settled, something 

 permanent, and not to be called in question; some- 

 thing which, by general agreement, has a right to be 

 where it is, and to be secure against disturbance, 

 whatever else may change. This feeling may attach 

 itself, as among the Jews (and indeed in most of the 

 commonwealths of antiquity), to a common God or 



