222 COSMIO PHILOSOPHY, [pt. il 



in the more or less complete recognition of individual rights 

 and obligations. On the rise of the feudal system, the rela- 

 tions of vassal to suzerain were, through the influence of 

 Eoman conceptions, extensively regulated by contract ; and 

 it is in this respect that the feudal institutions are most 

 widely distinguished " from the unadulterated usages of pri- 

 mitive races." ^ It was, I believe, mainly owing to this that 

 the integration of feudal lordships into nations was accom- 

 panied by the enlargement of individual liberty to a much 

 greater extent than the integxation of ancient clans, gentes, 

 and phratries into civic communities. The Eoman Church 

 also aided in promoting the freedom of individuals, as well 

 as in facilitating the consolidation of states. By the more 

 or less strict enforcement of clerical celibacy, it maintained 

 in the midst of hereditary aristocracy a comparatively demo- 

 cratic organization, where advancement largely depended 

 upon moral excellence or intellectual ability. And preserv- 

 ing, by the same admirable institution, its independence of 

 feudal patronage, it was often enabled successfully to inter- 

 pose between the tyranny of kings and the helplessness of 

 subjects. To ecclesiastical celibacy, more than to almost any 

 other assignable institution, we owe our emancipation from 

 ancient patriarchal conceptions of social duty. The develop- 

 ment of industry, crossing in various ways the antique 

 divisions of society, has contributed to the same result ; 

 until, m modern times, the primitive mode of organization is 

 almost entirely effaced, leaving but few barely traceable 

 vestiges. Individual rights and obligations, from being no- 

 thing, have come to be all in all. While originally the indi- 

 vidual was thought to exist only for the sake of the state, 

 the slate is now regarded as existing only for the sake of the 

 individual. 



It will thus be seen that the very same process, which has 

 resulted in the formation of social aggregates of a higher and 

 ^ Maine, op. cit. p. 365. 



