A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



cany on even the rudest form of barter, such as the 

 various tribes must have practised from an early 

 day. 



As to political ideas, even the crudest tribal life was 

 based on certain conceptions of ownership, at least of 

 tribal ownership, and the application of the principle 

 of likeness and difference to which we have already re- 

 ferred. Each tribe, of course, differed in some regard 

 from other tribes, and the recognition of these differ- 

 ences implied in itself a political classification. A 

 certain tribe took possession of a particular hunting- 

 ground, which became, for the time being, its home, 

 and over which it came to exercise certain rights. An 

 invasion of this territory by another tribe might lead 

 to war, and the banding together of the members of 

 the tribe to repel the invader implied both a recogni- 

 tion of communal unity and a species of prejudice in 

 favor of that community that constituted a primitive 

 patriotism. But this unity of action in opposing an- 

 other tribe would not prevent a certain rivalry of in- 

 terest between the members of the same tribe, which 

 would show itself more and more prominently as the 

 tribe increased in size. The association of two or 

 more persons implies, always, the ascendency of some 

 and the subordination of others. Leadership and sub- 

 ordination are necessary correlatives of difference of 

 physical and mental endowment, and rivalry between 

 leaders would inevitably lead to the formation of prim- 

 itive political parties. With the ultimate success and 

 ascendency of one leader, who secures either absolute 

 power or power modified in accordance with the ad- 

 vice of subordinate leaders, we have the germs of an 



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