Institutions Result from Ideas 149 



It seems that it would be difficult to push the 

 disregard of actual facts further than this. 



The perfection or imperfection of the State is the 

 result of the corresponding perfection or imperfec- 

 tion of its institutions, and in their turn the 

 institutions are the results of ideas. A society 

 of men who believe that slavery is beneficial, or 

 that inequality of the citizens before the law is the 

 best basis of the social order, will be an imperfect 

 society. Another society, composed of men who 

 understand the injury done by slavery and the 

 advantage of equality before the law, will be a 

 more perfect society. But how can war serve 

 to make the organization of society more perfect, ^^ 

 Suppose that war occurs between a country with- 

 out slaves and a country which maintains slavery, 

 are we justified in assuming that the former will 

 necessarily be victorious, that it will make con- 

 quests, and that thus the area of liberty will be 

 extended and the area in which there is slavery 

 will be contracted? And even if this unjustifiable 

 assumption is made, the essential consideration 

 is neglected that the first society did not suppress 

 slavery as the result of selective homicide, but 

 as a consequence of the direct observation of social 

 facts. In order that a war may put to the test a 

 slave-holding country and a free country, it is 

 necessary that these two kinds of countries should 

 exist before the war, which means that the reform 

 must have preceded the combat, and this is in fact 

 the process which we observe everywhere. It was 



