and blunderings of weak rulers; indeed there is no safety for a State or people, when the direction of its affairs is in weak and incompetent hands. A wise people will, therefore, be as anxious to avoid the rule of the weak as of the wicked, and be careful only to secure the services of the great and the good.

The interests of the State in this respect are, therefore, plain, not to be mistaken, or misunderstood; it needs the right man in the right place, to make certain its prosperity and progress. Various modes have turned up in history, by which rulers have been selected; and the object of the ensuing chapter will be to describe these various methods with such comments, as we proceed, as each mode seems to call for, in order that the merits and demerits of each may be understood, and the truth of history and the veracity of human consciousness be vindicated.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE STATE-FORMS OF ORGANIZATION.

FROM what has already been advanced, one fact will have become apparent; and that is, that whatever the form of government may be, its powers, rights and duties are the same. Each form is the embodiment of the State, and hence possesses all the powers of the State, and is required to perform all its duties. Whether one man concentrates in himself all these various functions, or whether they be divided among many, the real thing to be done, the real duty to be performed, must ever be the same. All departures from this rule originate in a misuse and abuse of the power of the State; human will, instead of divine law, becomes the rule of action, and human depravity is then developed through the organization of the State, instead of its true powers.

All progress consists in subjecting humanity to law. In rude and barbarous societies the idea of law is scarcely developed, and mere human will is then the rule of action; hence, in such societies, there is ever a state of conflict and war. The object, the aim of humanity, is to escape from this state of lawlessness, and enter upon a state of law; and when all minds and states shall come to be governed by law, and by the true law, the law for the sway of which the human soul was created, society and government will have assumed its most perfect form, and civilization its highest development. Now this condition of society cannot be reached until

humanity itself has received its full development. Man must first have been educated and taught to know the right and the true, and have been trained to obedience to law, before a society composed of men can assume its most perfect form. The intellectual and moral condition of a people, then, fix the character of its government; if the people are lawless, governed by will, the government must also partake of that character; whereas, if the people are intelligent, understand right and law, the government, whatever may be its form, must also partake of the same character. A population, who know the right and obey it in their actions, can never be governed by mere human will. Law in the governed and will in the governor must at once come in conflict; and one or the other must succumb. There is another idea which may be here stated. Nothing in this world exists of mere caprice; whatever is or has been, exists by virtue of some necessity; because it met some social want. Forms of government, then, have not been made; they have grown up, grown out of existing wants and necessities, and must, therefore, have been the true system for the time and the people. The philosophy, then, which would test all past or present forms of government by one which may work well in one age and among one people, is essentially a false philosophy. It ignores history, and human progress, and the law of the adaptation of means to an end; it shuts itself up in a form, as ideally perfect, and then condemns all other forms which have not been shaped upon this ideal. Such views are narrow, partizan, and want breadth and comprehension, and betray a most profound ignorance of humanity and human development and progress. All that has preceded us, and differs from our notions, is neither false nor a usurpation. Every form of government has existed of right, and because those who lived under it felt that they could not live without it. There have been bad men in power, who have committed gross outrages upon humanity; but these men have been found under every and all forms of government, and will continue to be found, until wickedness shall have

been superseded by righteousness, and the world become lapt in

universal law.

Different forms of government really mark and indicate the stages of social progress and civilization. They are each and all adapted, necessary to certain conditions of humanity and society; hence, in discussing these various forms, we shall consider them in the order of progress, so that the one will seem to grow out of the other by a process of necessary generation. The forms generally recognized are three monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, and each of these are indications of a different stage of civilization, of human progress. These words, however, are mere approaches at classification; they do not represent any definite thing, since no two forms of government have been exactly alike; still they clearly enough indicate the ideas prevailing at three distinct stages of human thought and development; the first idea was that of all power in one; the second in a few, and the third in the many. We will speak of each of these ideas and of their development in their order.

1. And first of the monarchical idea. In its purity, a monarchy is the State organized or embodied in a single individual, in whom are concentrated the legislative, the judicial and the executive powers; he makes, expounds and executes the law. This form of the State is the product of the lowest condition of humanity, of the earliest and rudest stages of civilization; and, in its simplicity, it is the only government of which humanity in that condition is capable. It is, to such a people, an absolute necessity; the only mean of escaping from lawlessness, from robbery, violence and murder; and of securing for itself the least chance of personal safety, and the possibility of future progress.

We have seen that organization looks to getting the best man for the place of power. Now in a rude state of society, and among an ignorant and degraded people, there can be no order, no law, ex. cept upon one condition, that some one man is appointed to keep

the peace, to keep order, to protect life. This man must be, intellectually and physically, the great man, the strong man. He cannot, however, be selected by vote, by ballot, or compact; he must select himself. And, by looking into Dr. Livingstone's researches in south-central Africa, we may see how this selection is made; how circumstances and necessity get hold of the great man, when compact and vote by ballot never could. Amid such a lawless people, where life is unsafe, the really great man is known at once; he leads at once. It is seen that he knows more of what is right, and how to enforce it; he can lead and guide others the best of any; hence the weak, those who know themselves to be weak, and are conscious of it, gather around him, ask to be led by him, and offer to aid him in putting down the robber and murderer, in protecting himself and themselves from the violence of others. The will of this leader becomes a sort of God's law to them; and though it may, in many respects, be devil's law, it is still better than no law. This leader, thus selected, becomes to these people a lawgiver, a judge and an executioner. He governs his followers, and he subdues his neighbors, until he has organized a tribe, which may grow into a nation. Such, according to Dr. Livingstone, is the history of Sebituane and his Mokalolos, and of every other tribe having the reality of a government. Here the real great man is got hold of, and is put in the right place, which is more than vote by ballot can always do. He is not a good man in any absolute sense; still he is the best man that can be found; he has a sort of rude justice, which is better than no justice. He will, however, do many startling acts, some real devil's work; but still he is endured, upheld, worshiped in some sort, because nothing better can be done; because these ignorant savages do not know of anything better to do; and his acts do not appear to them as to us; they look like justice to them, though to our more enlightened minds they seem but a poor sort of justice, very much like injustice and wrong and oppression. Still, such a government is a good