SEPARATION OF CIVIL FEOM RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY. 69 



ture on a long jDvojected expedition, in which he is accom- 

 panied by his slaves and concubines sacrificed at his tomb 

 — there arises, then, the incipient division of religious from 

 political control, of civil rule from spiritual. His son be- 

 comes deputed chief during his absence ; his authority is 

 cited as that by which his son acts; his vengeance is invok- 

 ed on all who disobey his son ; and his commands, as pre- 

 viously known or as asserted by his son, become the germ 

 of a moral code : a fact we shall the more clearly perceive 

 if we remember, that early moral codes inculcate mainly 

 the virtues of the warrior, and the duty of exterminating 

 some neighbouring tribe w^hose existence is an offence to 

 the deity. 



From this point onwards, these two kinds of authority, 

 at first complicated together as those of principal and agent, 

 become slowly more and more distinct. As experience ac- 

 cumulates, and ideas of causation grow more precise, kings 

 lose their supernatural attributes ; and, instead of God- 

 king, become God-descended king, God-appointed king^ 

 the Lord's anointed, the vicegerent of heaven, ruler reign- 

 ing by Divine right. The old theory, however, long clings 

 to men in feeling, after it has disappeared in name ; and 

 " such divinity doth hedge a king," that even now, many, 

 on first seing one, feel a secret surprise at finding him an 

 ordinary sample of humanity. The sacredness attaching 

 to royalty attaches afterwards to its appended institutions 

 — to legislatures, to laws. Legal and illegal are synony- 

 mous with right and wrong ; the authority of Parliament 

 is held unlimited ; and a lingering faith in governmental 

 power continually generates unfounded hopes from its en- 

 actments. Political scepticism, however, having destroyed 

 the divine prestige of royalty, goes on ever increasing, 

 and promises ultimately to reduce the State to a purely 

 Secular institution, whose regulations are limited in their 

 sphere, and have no other authority than the general will 



