The Evolution of the State. 107 



full control of the doctrine of evolution? We stand 

 between two eternities. Within the compass of the past 

 three centuries, most of the elements we prize to day in the 

 science of government have been evolved. Taking the 

 limit of man's possession of the earth to be within the 

 period demonstrated to us by Mr. Sampson, in his admirable 

 lecture on "Primitive Man," four hundred thousand years 

 were necessary to the human race before the earliest form 

 of government was possible. Who shall say that the earth- 

 dweller of a million years to come shall not be a part of 

 some great system of government ? What prophet shall be 

 so bold as to outline the political system which shall then 

 infold the earth ? The conception of the Universe itself 

 is daily widening. Astronomers are piercing farther and 

 farther the depths behind the midnight sky. Geologists 

 and Archaeologists are digging farther and farther into the 

 heart of the world and its history. The boldest explorer 

 of this realm which is to be, must be satisfied with what he 

 may have the courage to say is the tendency of things. 



Let me noAV say, however, in view of some discouraging 

 episodes of government, that have been referred to, that 

 the tendency, to my mind, is forward, not backward; up- 

 ward, not downward. The doctrine of evolution is of 

 necessity optimistic. Growth without limit means contin- 

 ual advance; surging and re-surging, like the tides of 

 the ocean, but forging forward from one cycle to another. 

 Physical cataclysms alone excepted, the march of humanity 

 is to be perpetually toward the light. So Jesus preached, 

 so Plato dreamed, so Milton sang, so Luther protested, so 

 Philip Sydney fought and died, so the great of every age 

 and clime have acted and spoken. Tliis is the vestal fire of 

 all the ages, which has been perpetually burning in the 

 human heart Progress and Victory for the human soul. 



I close this paper with the suggestion that, at some time 

 in the perhaps far distant future, the State will have 

 evolved into an entity of purely delegated, as distinguished 

 from representative, powers. Signs are not wanting, 

 already, that a reversion such as Mr. Stickney has indicated 

 to the primitive meeting, in open convention, of the citi- 

 zens of a limited vicinage, will constitute the only direct 

 political relation of the governed with the government. 



May not the people of a given section wisely conclude 

 that it is safer for the common interest to delegate, to a 



