SOCIOLOGY LXXXI 



ctiiun'il is the equality of the members who compose the 

 organization. One man's ojjinion may weigh more than that 

 of another; equality of opinion is absurd, but equality of 

 voice or vote in the council is necessary. kSo primeval man 

 discovers the principle of equality, and from the first organi- 

 zation of tribal society to the ])resent time, human equality 

 has been a principle of justice. That wliich masks the princi- 

 ple of equality in the councils of early nations is the idea 

 which grows uj) in barbarism and becomes thoroughly estab- 

 lished in early national society, that guilt or innocence can be 

 established bv supernatural methods, and that the judgments 

 of the council or tribal court sliould be controlled by super- 

 natural agencies, as by ordeal; and when at last a stage of 

 society is reached in which the ruler of the people is also 

 the high priest of its religion, then the princi})le of equality 

 necessary to the establishment of justice is temporarily over- 

 thrown, for the man who can render supernatural judgment 

 has supreme authority. The law of equality in demotic bodies 

 is the law of equality in asserting judgments. 



Here we note that the equalit}' is not that physical equality 

 whicli is fundamentally expressed in science as the law that 

 action and reaction are equal, but it is the equality of opinions 

 of justice in the tribal court, which may be resolved into 

 equality of purpose — one jnan's })urpose in rendering judgment 

 must lie equal to another's ])urpose in rendering judgment. 

 They must be equal because the men have a common purpose 

 in rendering- a iudgment. 



We have noted how equality is masked or even overthrown 

 when the ruler becomes a high priest. In modern society, as 

 in the United States, when the authority of the priest is over- 

 thrown, equality is more or less iiiasked, although it may exist. 

 Here the body politic is a very large grouj) of people occupy- 

 ino- extended reg-ions. The court is no longer tlie council and 

 the coiu't combined, but special individuals are selected to 

 constitute courts, and individuals are selected to constitute 

 councils. In these councils the members are chosen by 

 equality of votes, and they become representatives of all the 

 peojjle. But the council itself may be composed of two 



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