104 The Evolution of the State. 



was death to talk about the government ; while, in our 

 modern England and America, it is almost criminal, during 

 a certain portion of any year, to talk about anything else. 

 In Plato's Republic, citizens were to be punished if they 

 attem])ted to concern themselves with trade. In these 

 days of the actual republic, a vast number of ov;r citizens 

 lind little concern in anything else. 



How, then, briefly stated, has the State evolved ? Begin- 

 ning with the surrender of individual indulgence to the 

 welfare of the associated family group; rising to tribal 

 importance by the kinship-line of demarcation ; increasing 

 tlic numbers of the gens by the supremacy of conquest 

 find by adoption; the heads of important tribes choosing 

 ])etty kings, and themselves, in turn, constituting an aris- 

 tocracy of nobles ; the sui)reme head and these allied 

 nobles seeking, in turn, one against the other, the alliance 

 of the masses, and, as a consequence, conceding to the 

 average man important recognition ; the average man him- 

 self finally over-topping both kings and nobles, his speech 

 attended to, his thovight made free, his needs becoming the 

 ultimate end of government. 



Have we not thus epitomized the complete analogue of 

 all that we know of evolution ? Government changes from 

 snudl to greater numbers, developing, as it advances, great 

 complexity of problems. Out of the hot crucible of war 

 the fittest form of government survives and thrives. Deep 

 in the still currents of the early centuries, the seed-germ 

 of average humanity quietly awaited its favorable environ- 

 ment, occasionally seeking the upper sky of active being 

 during some spasmodic ei)isode of war, then being closed 

 u])on l)y inauspicious times until the fitting surroundings 

 for its healthy growth are furnished it by the inexorable 

 logic of events. And having thus imperfectly demonstrated 

 tlie morphology of the State, we are brought to our con- 

 cluding itupiiry. 



AVliat final form Avill the State assume, when under the 

 full control of the principles of Evolution? Truly this is 

 an ambitious question. Some light niight be thrown upon 

 the j)roblem, if we could be quite certain of the ultimate 

 scope of governments. 



Two theories are current concerning the true functions 

 of the State. One is, that it fulfills its office completely 

 when it secures to the individual absolute justice mean- 



