222 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



give place to the idea of doing what is best under the 

 circumstances both for the criminal and for society. 



Coming next to the obligations to be maintained, we 

 find the most distinctive feature of development to turn, 

 as we might expect, on the ground upon which rights and 

 duties rest. In the earliest phases corresponding to the 

 two lower stages of ethical development there is a clear 

 line of demarcation between the member of a certain group 

 and the outsider. In the kinship societies there is in 

 general approximate equality between those of the same sex 

 and the same local group or kin, while the ' stranger ' stands 

 outside the sphere of obligation. In authoritarian societies 

 differences of rank, caste or class appear, which reflect the 

 same principle of group-morality, though with various 

 modifications of form and limitations of stringency. But 

 in the higher authoritarian societies the ethical principle of 

 equality makes itself felt, and for some purposes at least all 

 Roman citizens under the empire, or again all Moslems and 

 in a measure all Christians are equal, though they may be 

 subject to autocratic rule. Equality, however, in this stage 

 is generally conditional either on uniformity of religious 

 belief or on some assignable legal qualification. The fuller 

 elaboration of the principle of equality as dependent on the 

 conception of personality is naturally the work of the state, 

 and is carried through in proportion to the thoroughness 

 with which the principle of citizenship is applied. In the 

 modern state the class barrier has disappeared, and the sex 

 barrier is disintegrated. There remains the colour line, 

 of which it is not possible to speak with precision in general 

 terms. In some cases it has been surmounted, in others 

 not. It may be said upon the whole to remain in the 

 modern world the only serious exception to the general 

 rule of fundamental equality of rights and obligations. 

 Lastly, in so far as obligations attach to personality they 

 transcend natural and political boundaries, and this is 

 recognised, both in the higher forms of authoritarian society 

 and of the state, in the growth of international law. The 

 principle that personal rights persist even in a state of war 

 and after conquest is fairly well established. The further 

 development of the same conception which attaches definite 



