420 



GOVERNMENT 



the other ; and they are mutually destructive. 

 But suppose that, not being blinded by any a priori 

 cataracts, we use our eyes upon these premisses 

 what utter shams and delusions they show them- 

 selves to be ! I hope that no more need be said 

 about natural rights and the equality of men. 

 But there is just as little foundation in fact for the 

 social contract and either the limited, or the un- 

 limited, devolution of rights and powers which is 

 supposed to have been effected by it. We have 

 sadly little definite knowledge of the manner in 

 which polities arose, but, if anything is certain, it 

 is thatjthe notion of a contract, whether expressed 

 or implied, is by no means an adeqrin.t.f> pvprpgginp 

 of the process. 



The most archaic polities of which we have any 

 definite record are either families, or federations 

 of families ; and the most doctrinaire of political 

 philosophers will hardly be prepared to maintain 

 that the family polity was based upon contract 

 between the paterfamilias and his wife and chil- 

 dren, and arose out of the expressed desire of the 

 latter to have their liberty and property protected 

 by their governor ; or that even any tacit under- 

 standing on that subject influenced the formation 

 of the family group. In truth, the more primi- 

 tive the condition of a polity, the less is tin-re 

 of a contract, either expressed or implied, be- 

 tween its members the more common is it to 

 find that neither wife nor child possessed either 



