18 HUME I 



tribution of justice, or, in other words, the support of the 

 twelve judges. Kings and parliaments, fleets and armies, 

 officers of the court and revenue, ambassadors, ministers 

 and privy councillors, are all subordinate in the end to this 

 part of administration. Even the clergy, as their duty 

 leads them to inculcate morality, may justly be thought, so 

 far as regards this world, to have no other useful object of 

 their institution." (III. 37.) 



The police theory of government has never been 

 stated more tersely: and, if there were only one 

 state in the world; and if we could be certain by 

 intuition, or by the aid of revelation, that it is 

 wrong for society, as a corporate body, to do 

 anything for the improvement of its members and, 

 thereby, indirectly support the twelve judges, no 

 objection could be raised to it. 



Unfortunately the existence of rival or inimical 

 nations furnishes "kings and parliaments, fleets 

 and armies," with a good deal of occupation 

 beyond the support of the twelve judges; and, 

 though the proposition that the State has no 

 business to meddle with anything but the ad- 

 ministration of justice, seems sometimes to be 

 regarded as an axiom, it can hardly be said to 

 be intuitively certain, inasmuch as a great many 

 people absolutely repudiate it; while, as yet, the 

 attempt to give it the authority of a revelation 

 has not been made. 



As Hume says with profound truth in the 

 fourth Essay, " On the First Principles of Govern- 

 ment": 



