278 



ADMINISTRATIVE NIHILISM 



free individuality wjiich__is_ssenti<al to the evolu- 

 v tion nf__ t.T]fi snfua.1 organisation ? The formula 

 which truly defines the function of Government 

 must contain the solution of both the problems 

 involved, and not merely of one of them. 



Locke has furnished us with such a formula, 

 in the noblest, and at the same time briefest, 

 statement of the purpose of Government known 

 to me : 



END OF GOVERNMENT is THE GOOD OF 

 MANKIND." l 



But the good of mankind is not a something 

 which is absolute and fixed for all men, whatever 

 their capacities or state of civilisation. Doubt- 

 less it is possible to imagine a true " Civitas Dei," 

 in which every man's moral faculty shall be such 

 as leads him to control all those desires which 

 run counter to the good of mankind, and to 

 cherish only those which conduce to the welfare 

 of society ; and in which every man's native in- 

 tellect shall be sufficiently strong, and his culture 

 sufficiently extensive, to enable him to know 

 what he ought to do and to seek after. And, 

 in that blessed State, police will be as much a 

 superfluity as every other kind of government. 



But the eye of man has not beheld that > 

 and is not likely to behold it for some time to 



1 Of Civil Government, % 229. 



