GOVERNMENT KEQUIEED BY THE ABORIGINAL MAN. 85 



we see that in origin as in effect, the system is a setting 

 up of temporary governments between all men who come 

 in contact, for the purpose of better managing the inter- 

 course between them. 



From the proposition, that these several kinds of gov- 

 ernment are essentially one, both in genesis and function, 

 may be deduced several important corollaries, directly 

 bearing on our special topic. 



Let us first notice, that there is not only a common 

 origin and office for all forms of rule, but a common neces- 

 sity for them. The aboriginal man, coming fresh 

 from the killing of bears and from lying in ambush for 

 his enemy, has, by the necessities of his condition, a nature 

 requiring to be curbed in its every impulse. Alike in war 

 and in the chase, his daily discipline has been that of 

 sacrificing other creatures to his own needs and passions. 

 His character, bequeathed to him by ancestors who led 

 similar lives, is moulded by this discipline — is fitted to this 

 existence. The unlimited selfishness, the love of inflicting 

 pain, the bloodthirstiness, thus kept active, he brings with 

 him into the social state. These dispositions put him in 

 constant danger of conflict with his equally savage neigh- 

 bour. In small things as in great, in words as in deeds, 

 he is aggressive ; and is hourly liable to the aggressions 

 of others like natiired. Only, therefore, by the most 

 rigorous control exercised over all actions, can the primi- 

 tive unions of men be maintained. There must be a 

 ruler strong, remorseless, and of indomitable will ; there 

 must be a creed terrible in its threats to the disobedi- 

 ent ; and there must be the most servile submission of 

 all inferiors to superiors. The law must be cruel ; the 

 religion must be stern ; the ceremonies must be strict. 



The co-ordinate necessity for these several kinds of re- 

 itraint might be largely illustrated from history were there 



