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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 573. 



caste, the province, and the nation into 

 which the urbs and province grew, were 

 long controlled by family lines. Most com- 

 prehensive in applicability though simplest 

 in ethical essence of all the fundamental 

 types of law is that of control of the indi- 

 vidual for the common good; in spirit this 

 law rises above consanguinal and propriet- 

 ary bonds and gives origin to government 

 of the people, by the people, for the people. 

 Thus, just as man, the fire-maker, rises 

 above lower nature through control of ex- 

 ternal force, so does man, the law-maker, 

 rise in successive groups above the lower 

 of his own kind through control of the 

 movements and motives reflecting his own 

 internal force; and viewed in the light of 

 law, the apparent chaos of uncounted 

 thousands of the world's tribes and peoples, 

 speaking unreckoned hundreds of tongues 

 and pursuing innumerable vocations, is 

 readily reduced to order. 



Viewed as a law-maker, man reveals the 

 stages of his own progress from a primal 

 state to the condition of highest enlighten- 

 ment—from the low level of the Australian 

 Blackfellows or the African pygmies to the 

 elevated plane - of constitutional govern- 

 ment. The law of the maternal family 

 befits only a sparse population living 

 largely in a state of nature, i. e., small and 

 isolated tribes of too low intelligence to 

 recognize paternity or organize confeder- 

 acies, to devise economic systems or to 

 realize humanitarian motives *and institu- 

 tions; in this stage scores- of living tribes 

 still rest, while others (like the Muskwaki 

 and Cocopa tribes, some of the Pueblo folk, 

 and a number of Polynesian peoples) are 

 just emerging from it; and its conditions 

 are those under which all early men must 

 have lived. The law of the paternal fam- 

 ily is adapted to a denser population of 

 industrial habits, i. e., to large tribes enter- 

 ing on pastoral or agricultural life, and of 



intelligence sufficient to recognize paternity 

 and to confederate with neighboring tribes 

 for defense and offense, but not to frame 

 economic systems or humanitarian institu- 

 tions; the clearest early picture of this 

 stage is that afforded by the children of 

 Israel, and its best living illustrations are 

 found among the aborigines of America; 

 and the transition to the next higher stage 

 is recounted in the earliest writings of 

 many peoples and in the interpretations of 

 these by modern genius — such as Fustel de 

 Coulanges's 'Ancient City,' and Matthew 

 Arnold's 'Light of Asia' and 'Light of the 

 World.' The law of tenure is adjusted to 

 still denser populations of commingled 

 lineage, living in large and growing com- 

 munities, i. e., to industrial peoples gather- 

 ing into cities and spreading over countries 

 under the influence of intelligence sufficient 

 to frame economic systems coupled with 

 cults tending to foster humanitarian im- 

 pulses and institutions; the development of 

 this stage makes up most of the world's 

 written history; and the movement toward 

 the next is marked by nearly every popular 

 revolt and by most cabinet revolutions of 

 modern times. The law of the individual 

 (or of constitutional citizenship) is framed 

 for large and progressive industrial popu- 

 lations, i. e., interdependent peoples of in- 

 telligence sufficient to recognize lineage and 

 organize alliances, to create economic sys- 

 tems and frame humanitarian institutions, 

 and to live and move in accordance Avith 

 those principles of benevolence and toler- 

 ance and justice underlying all law. It is 

 especially noteworthy (because too com- 

 monly overlooked) that in each stage the 

 law is more formal and rigorous and better 

 known in its letter than in the next higher 

 stage, i. e., that with each step in progress 

 the control passes more and more from ex- 

 ternal domination toward internal force — 

 the inner sense of right among men and 



