A History of The Intellectual Development of Europe by John William Draper Ancient Law Its Connection With The Early History of Society, and Its Relation To Modern Ideas by Henry Sumner Maine

University of Northern Iowa
Review
Author(s): John Fiske
Review by: John Fiske
Source: The North American Review, Vol. 109, No. 224 (Jul., 1869), pp. 197-230
Published by: University of Northern Iowa
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The Laws
1869.]
ofHistory.
197
men
of his country still adhere to the opinions he then gave

?
founded in the very nature of things
utterance
to,
opinions
It is not by shak
in
that
region.
existing
peculiar Eastern
a
edifice
but
still
such
necessary,
political
ing
complicated,
It
as Hungary
to the ground
that freedom can be promoted.
secu
is rather by raising up again those bulwarks of European
an encroaching
to throw
has contrived
autocracy
rity which
like
down through intrigue and brute force.
Commonwealths
and the Danubian
those of Hungary
ought to
Principalities
a
in
venture
hands
such
work.
To
upon deadly strife
join
each other can only bring about

with
fate which has befallen unhappy Poland.
for both
of them
Karl
the
Blind.
VII. ?
1. A History
of
of the Intellectual
Development
M. D., LL. D.
New
Draper,
By John William
Europe.
1863.
York.
2. Ancient Law ; its Connection with theEarly History
of Society,
toModern
and its Relation
Ideas.
Sumner Maine.
By Henry
1863.
London.
Art.
Every
the laws to which social changes

attempt to discover
run great risk of being frustrated
must
by the mere
mass
of
the
of
which
the
details
strives
immensity
investigator
to arrange in orderly sequence.
as are
numberless
Seemingly
the phenomena
dealt with by the physical sciences, they bear no
or in variety, to the facts upon
either in multitude
proportion,
conform
the historical
inquirer must build his scientific theorems.
concerning man in his physical relations to soil, climate,
of the earth, blend with facts con
food, and the configuration
the intellectual
and moral
relations
of men
to each
cerning
are
sur
of nature by which
other and to the aspects
they
and multiform
rounded, making up a problem of such manifold
which
Facts
that it may well have long been deemed

complexity,
incapable
The fit subject of wonder
of satisfactory
solution.
is, indeed,
not that we are as yet unable to arrive at accurate prevision
198The Laws
ofHistory.
[July,
but that, con

such a diversified
throng of phenomena,
our
in many
other
the meagreness
of
sidering
knowledge
we
should have been able to detect any uni
departments,
in human affairs, and having detected
it, to
formity whatever
it
affiliate
upon trustworthy
primordial
principles.
inductive
the ordinary
In determining
the laws of history,
are
so
instruments
and
in
methods,
chemistry
physics,
potent
of social
The extreme
of but little efficiency.
heterogeneity
amid
their employment
is apt to make
very misleading.
phenomena
now current have resulted
fallacies
the
of
worst
Many
political
and
of the methods
from the perverse application
of Agreement
to cases where
of causes is so com
the composition
Difference
plex as to render hopeless all attempts at an inductive solution.
In the science of history,
the deductive method must be used,
no less than in astronomy,
conditions
though under different
in order
and with different limitations.
It is no less essential,
final
to
to conduct our investigation
its
issue, that we
securely
use of elimination.
Minor
should make extensive
perturbing
for a time .be left out of consideration,
elements must
just as
attraction
mutual
from
the
of motion
the inequalities
resulting
at first passed over in the search for the
of the planets were
of endless
discussion
The
formula of gravitation.
general
the law of
be reserved
until
minute
historical
details must
social changes has been deduced from more general phenomena,
A law wide enough to
and is ready for inductive verification.
needs
be eminently
science must
form a basis for historical
can
after
and
be
abstract,
only by contem
sought
profitably
or
of
most
characteristics
most
the
general
prominent
plating
The prime requisite of the formula of which
social changes.
we are in quest
such
is that it should accurately
designate
changes under their leading aspect.
common to a vast
Now by far the most obvious characteristic
number of social changes is that they are changes from a worse
to a better state of things,?that
they constitute phases of pro
human
that
It
not
is
asserted
gress.
history has in all times
it is not denied that
and places been the history of progress;
at' various
times and in many places it has been the history of
? made
trite
is called to the fact
; but attention
retrogression
by long
familiarity,
yet
none
the less obstinately
misconceived
The Laws
1869.]
ofHistory.
199
that progress has been on the whole

the most prominent
and important
feature of the history of a considerable
portion
of this
of mankind.
And it is to the scientific
interpretation
fact that the present article is devoted.
Though several passages in ancient literature express the opin
ion that the earliest men were little superior to brutes,* there is
no reason for supposing
that the idea of continuous
progress
ever entered into the social and political
of ancient
speculations
Far from supposing

the human race to have
philosophers.!
advanced
in strength,
and intelligence,
virtue,
they for the
most
its constant
could
part bewailed
Scarcely
degeneracy.
two men of later times load upon a wagon
the stones which
ease at their antagonists;
and Diomedes
Hektor
hurled with
and even decrepit Nestor
lightly quaffed from the goblet which
the feebler hands of succeeding
nations might vainly strive to
stir from the table.
Yet even this heroic race has degenerated
and in the iron age
since the days of Tydeus and Bellerophon;
which follows, men are afflicted with grievous calamities,
reap
for their mischievous
ing just retribution
knavery and profli
does it profit a man
to be just; %wholesome
gacy.
Hardly
contrition
(At'&os) has quit the earth; and, as a fit consumma
to overwhelm
all his un
tion, Zeus may shortly be expected
worthy
in
creatures
common
ruin.
the Stoics and the Roman

the golden
Among
jurisconsults,
age of popular belief was refined into a blissful state of nature,
* JEsch. Prom.
Lucret. V. 923, seq.; Horat.
451-515;
Eurip. Suppl. 201-215;
151 ;Manil.
I. iii. 99 ; Juvenal, XV.
I. 90-94.
"
literature gives few or no hints of a belief that the progress of society
f Ancient
to better."
I do not recollect
is necessarily
from worse
any pas
(Maine, p. 74.)
is clearly expressed, unless
it be in Seneca, Nat.
sage where a belief in progress
"
Veniet
Qiuest. VII. 25.
tempus quo ista quae nunc latent, in lucem dies extrahat,
.Sat.
et longioris aevi diligentia.Veniet

nescisse mirentur."
J
tempus,
quo posteri
nostri
tarn aperta
nos
"Svv brj eya) firjr avros iv avBp&noiari ftUaios

epos vlos- e7rei KaKov eori bUaiov
Efyr
"E/ifJicvai el fiei^ea ye btKrjv dftiKwrepos e?jei

'AXXa roS' ouVa) eoXTra reXetv Ala Tepirutepavvov.
?
Hesiod,
Opp. Di.
"
non
?
Damnosa
dies
imminuit
quid
Aetas
parentum,
pejor avis, tulit
Nos nequiores, mox daturos
vitiosiorem." ? Horat.,
Progeniem
Carm.
III.
270.
6.
200The Laws
ofHistory.
[July,
wherein manners were simpler, passions more

under control,
and legislation more equitable,
than in the period known
to
Mr. Maine
has admirably delineated
the process by
history.
felt want of a system of principles
which, from the constantly
fit for settling disputes between Roman
citizens and foreigners,
there gradually arose in the Praetorian
courts au equitable body
of law founded upon customs
common
to all nations
alike.
That
this process, even while
carried on,
being energetically
as
should never have been correctly understood
or interpreted
a phenomenon
of moral
shows in the most strik
improvement,
how foreign to ancient modes
of thought was the
ing manner
of progress.
Far from perceiving
the real character
conception
of the noble juristic system steadily growing up under their own
?
as the gro
supervision,
grander proportions
daily attaining
tesque and barbarous elements hallowed by local usage one by
one were eliminated
of equitable
ideas which
from the mass
formed their common substratum,?the
Praetors of the Republic
and the great Antonine
of
under the influence
jurisconsults,
to
themselves
be
StoL conceptions,
merely restoring to
supposed
their original
and partially obliterated
integrity the disfigured
ordinances
of a primeval
state of nature.
The state of fault
the
less morality
and unimpeachable
which
constituted
equity
ideal goal of their labors, they mistook
for the shadow of a real
though unseen past.
The mighty
sway exercised
by the ideas of Roman
jurispru
dence over all departments
of modern
thought is nowhere more
than in the subsequent
clearly to be discerned
history of this
in
the
writers
who
seventeenth
The
great
century
conception.
the doctrines of
illustrated with exquisite beauty and clearness
saturated with the
Public
Law seem to have been completely
notion of a primitive
fit
for
interna
natural
code,
regulating
tional concerns, and for supplying everywhere
the shortcomings
its degenerate
whose
worth must
of civil legislation,
offspring,
be uniformly
rated according
to the degree
in which
it ap
the
The
influence
this
its
of
of
perfection
parent.
proaches
a
so
with
belief
consistent
conception,
incompatible
thoroughly
on the extent
in progress, may be best appreciated
by reflecting
to which
expository
embodied
contemporary
legal literature, whether
treatises or in judicial decisions,
is impregnated
in
by
The Laws
1869.]
of History.
201
"
"
it. The appeals to
and " natural
right reason
reason,"
which
since Blackstone's
time have filled so large a place in
bear unequivocal
marks
of their origin.
juristic dissertation,
Somewhat
less subtile, but equally notorious, has been the influ
ence of the Roman
theory upon social and historical
specula
tion.
The vulgar opinion that national
in general,
decadence
and the decline of the Roman
in particular, may be
Empire
ascribed to the prevalence
of luxury, and the abandonment
of
a
case
no
barbarous
in
is
The
simplicity,
point.
wide-spread
tion of a Social Compact traces its pedigree
to the same remote
source from which sprang the Ethics of Epictetus
and the jurid
ical theories
of Puffendorf.*
And the extravagant
doctrines
a
so
as
of Rousseau,
far
return
to the
advocating
practicable
primitive
happy
state,
"
When
were
wild
distorted
merely
antiquity respecting
the
human
in woods
the noble
savage
ran,"
of the prevalent
caricatures
opinions
the more or less hopeless deterioration
of
of
race.
to Mr. Maine, " the tendency

to look not to the
According
to
the
future
into
but
for
past
types of perfection was brought
some
the world
and
with
his
statement,
by Christianity";
.
as profoundly
Of the
true.
may be accepted
qualifications,
and
three ancient nations, whose
lines of moral,
intellectual,
in
Chris
their
resulted
convergence
religious
by
development
as we have seen, embraced
and Romans,
tianity, the Greeks
with one consent the melancholy
doctrine of human retrogres
Far more
sion.
hopeful was the view of life taken by the
eminent thinkers and writers of Palestine.
the Jews,
Among
it is true, traditions of a long-lost state of primitive
innocence
were more
as is seen in the
or less current,
and happiness
therefrom.
myth of the garden of Eden and man's
expulsion
But this particular
tradition bears upon its face strong indica
and seems to have been entirely
tions of a Persian
ig
origin,!
Be
nored by Jewish writers, until the late age of the apostles.
* See
the discussion
Rechtslehre,
IV.
t Bohlen's
Th.
of
II. Abschn.
Genesis,
the doctrine
Prov. Jurisp. 331-371;

in Austin,
II. 142 ; and Maine,
des Rechts,
i.; Stahl, Phil,
II. 57 - 59;
Colcnso,
?? 1065,
Kant.
Chap.
1087 - 1090.
202The Laws
ofHistory.
[July?
this as it may, Hebrew

to end, is in
from beginning
prophecy,
to
faith in a future state of glory destined
spired by exulting
it. The
eclipse and render of no account all that had preceded
Messianic
indeed
in its general
features be
kingdom might
copied from the romantic
reign of David, but it was to be a
These
its original pattern.
copy immeasurably
transcending
of future glory were, however,
reserved for Jews
expectations
alone.
For all other nations the fate in store was irretrievable
ruin.
They were to be dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel.
on passing
the Messianic
into Christian
hands,
theory
a different
was
into the
It
aspect.
metamorphosed
of Christ's millennial
reign upon the earth, in the
were
of
all
which
nations
blessings
equally to share, on com
with
certain
conditions.
Thus, for the first
prescribed
plying
a
in
the
there
well-defined
belief
appears
time,
possible advance
to future perfection;
thus do we find pre
of all mankind
of
sented, albeit in crude and meagre
outline, the rudiments
human
the modern
of
idea of progress.
The Christian
theory
a subtle antagonism
ever preserving
to the classic
perfectibility,
But
assumed
doctrine
times assumed
has in modern
grand
theory of deterioration,
and imposing proportions,
with the conclu
itself
and, allying
its
it is now rapidly driving
sions of scientific
investigation,
a
of
from
the
field.
past
conceptions
Antiquated
opponent
in favor of modern
abdicate
state of nature must
conceptions
no
must
of a future
state of equilibrium.
Civil legislation
"
natural
of
to
the
rules
be
its
longer
conformity
judged by
of ad
the requirements
reason," but by its power of fulfilling
And as for the noble savage, the results of
vancing humanity.
historic research may be summed up in Dickens's
emphatic dec
and an enormous
laration that he is "a prodigious
nuisance
"
?
that
his virtues are a fable, his happiness
superstition,,,
a delusion, his nobility nonsense."
The illustrious thinkers of the last century, who endeavored
to study human history
from a scientific
point of view, were
an
error
which
led
into
from
contemporary
unconsciously
The follow
writers have not as yet entirely freed themselves.
ers of Turgot and Condorcet were prone to regard progress as
to ac
and universal.
necessary
They attempted
something
tried to explain organic develop
count for it, much as Lamarck
The Laws
1869.]
of History.
203
as the continuous
and ubiquitous manifestation
of an in
ment,
as such a theory
herent tendency toward perfection.
Baseless
infected
literature
ip, it has nevertheless
obviously
subsequent
extent.
to a surprising
Thus Dr. Whately,
in his edition of
asserts
that " civilization
is the
King's Discourses,
Archbishop
natural state of man, since he has evidently a natural tendency
towards it." Upon which it has been aptly remarked that," by
a parity of reasoning,
old age is the natural state of man, since
he has evidently a natural tendency towards it."*
Mr. Adam
labors under a similar confusion of ideas, when he finds fault
with Sir G. C. Lewis
for upholding
the doctrine
of progress
races
never
while
that
have
certain
In
advanced.
admitting
his usual good
taking this course, the great scholar exhibited
sense and caution;
was
ever
as
he
wont
to
and,
do, kept closely
to the facts of the case. Yet
for this Mr. Adam accuses him
of virtually dividing mankind
into two differently
constituted
one
of
the
which
the
other
while
races,
possesses,
lacks, the
inherent tendency
toward perfection!
allied
to this
f
Closely
error is that which assumes
re
that the theory of progression
us
at
to
that
time
nowhere
has
there
been
quires
suppose
any
a temporary
Thus, Mr. Goldwin
retrogression.
Smith, in his
"
"
"
on the Study of History,"
Lectures
holds that
positivists
cannot preserve
without
that the reign
consistency
admitting
of Charles
II. was an advance upon the Cromwellian
Protec
torate.
Mr. Mansel,
in his " Limits
of Religious
Thought,"
still more preposterously
that on the theory of pro
declares
of imperial Rome
gression we ought to regard the polytheism
as a higher form of religion
than the earlier Hebrew worship
of Jehovah.
While
thinkers of the opposite school, in order to
save their cherished doctrine,
accept dilemmas
inconsiderately
of this sort, and strive to coax the annals of the past into
the uninterrupted
advance of civilization.
to show how vaguely the doctrine
of
examples
been apprehended.
The fallacy of sup
progress has hitherto
civilization
or uniformly,
to have proceeded
posing
serially,
or in consequence
of any universal
is
tendency,
nearly akin to
the fallacy of classifying
the animal kingdom
in a series of as
affirming
I cite
these
* The
of Nations
Progress
(London,
of History,
t Theories
p. 87.
1861),
p. 45.
204 The Laws
ofHistory.
[July,
?
a fruitful source of delusion, which
it was
groups,
The theological
great merit to have steadily avoided.
as a divine gift to man*
habit of viewing
and
progressiveness
the metaphysical
habit of regarding
it as a necessary
attribute
are equally unsound
of humanity,
and equally fraught with
cending
Cuvier's
error.
cure
more
Until
accurate
are
conceptions
acquired,
no
se
can be made
advance
the true order

toward discerning
of social changes.
Far from being necessary
and universal,
and par
progress has been in an eminent
degree contingent
tial.
Its career has been frequently
by periods of
interrupted
or declension,
it has gone on, it has
stagnation
and, wherever
been forwarded
not by any inherent
but by a con
tendency,
currence of favorable
conditions.
going quite
Again, without
"
so far as to say, with Mr. Maine,
that
the stationary
condi
tion of the human race is the rule, the progressive
the ex
we must
still be careful
to remember
that the
ception,"!
communities
which
have attained
to a conspicuous
degree
a numerical
of civilization
constitute
of mankind.
minority
of
nations
with
the rapidly
advancing
Contemporaneously
almost
exist
and
the
the
nations
of
Asia,
Europe
sluggish
in
tribes of Africa
and Polynesia.
So irregular,
stationary
deed,
has
been
the march
be made
progress may
the present day.
In the science
the
that most
of civilization,
stages
of
ocular
investigation
subject
of
at
"
not old in
therefore, old means
lies
but
archaic
that
most
is
which
chronology,
as a
nearest
to the beginning
considered
of human progress
re
and that is most modern
which
is farthest
development,
our
moved
from that beginning."
from
Let
us, then, pluck
%
minds
associate
of history,
in structure:
every twig and rootlet

in time with
lateness
to
insidious
tendency
in
development.
completeness
of
the
* " It is
for mere savages to civilize themselves.Consequently
impossible
man must at some period have received the rudiments
from a super
of civilization
not altogether
statement
instructor."
human
Rhetoric,
p. 94.) A
(Whately's
compatible with the one just quoted from the same author in the text.
In Tylor's
of Mankind
t Ancient
Law,
p. 24.
(p. 190) may be
Early History
for believing
found some grounds
that even the lowest human races have advanced
of
in civilization,
extent.
(Cf. Lewis, Methods
though to an almost
inappreciable
in Politics, Vol.
I. p. 302.)
Observation
%M'Lennan,
Primitive
Marriage,
p. 9.
The Laws
1869.]
of History.
205
Spain under Philip III. was probably less civilized than it had
III.
been under Abderahman
but little need be said in
In view of these considerations,
of cyclical progression,*
criticism
of the doctrine
which was
or less clearness by several
asserted with more
formerly
phi
but which owes its thorough
elaboration
to Vico.
losophers,
At present this theory is likely to find but few advocates;
and
influence upon speculation
its clandestine
is fortunately
insig
never known
the beginning
or the end of
have
nificant.
We
a historic
for believing
cycle, and have no inductive warrant
are
now traversing
we
that
the analogies
drawn
one; while
the solar system, which
the
probably first suggested
of by the fact that even the
disposed
theory, are sufficiently
so long as
planetary motions were not cyclical
they were pro
mobile
toward
equilibrium.
gressing
Fortified
reflections, we are now in a con
by the foregoing
a very remarkable
to examine
dition
the
theory respecting
of society, which, though long in
and development
constitution
a rudimentary form familiar to the minds
of scholars, has only
a
exerted
the present
notable
within
I
influence.
century
" the
social organism,"
refer to the doctrine of
of which it will
to begin by scrutinizing
the earliest form,?that,
be convenient
human
the
in
whole
which
to its
race, with
namely,
respect
an
to
likened
individual
is
The
man.f
development,
concep
in his "Republic,"
tion is an old one.
an
instituted
Plato,
elaborate comparison between the chief divisions of society and
the faculties of the human mind
; and Hobbes,
long after him,
to trace with still greater precision a resemblance
endeavored
between
in the effort
society and the human body, expending
from
laudable but bootless

More
ingenuity.
recently, Rot
to his Allgemeine
has
teck, in the introduction
Geschichte,
of mankind.
defined universal
The
history .as the biography
in the great work
same conception
of
appears
frequently
much
* " Jam
redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia

regna,
et altera quae yehat Argo
erit turn Tiphys,
heroas ; erunt quoque altera bella,
Delectos
iterum ad Trojam magnus mittetur Achilles."
Atque
Alter
?
Virg. Eel. IV.
"
stated in the famous remark of Pascal,?
Toute
la
t The doctrine is admirably
la
suite
des
des hommes,
doit
etre
succession
considered
siecles,
longue
pendant
comme un seul homme, qui subsiste toujours, et qui apprend continuellement."
206The Laivs
ofHistory.
[July>
and the part played

in his
Comte,
by collective
humanity
later speculations
is well known.
But no previous writer has
individual and social development
pushed the analogy between
so far as Dr. Draper.
It is the central
idea which
serves,
to bind together
the immense
though not always efficiently,
mass
of facts accumulated
in his " History
of
heterogeneous
the Intellectual
of Europe.5'
that
Development
Premising
"
man is the archetype
of society, and that individual develop
is the model of social progress," Dr. Draper
ment
proceeds to
the history
of civilization
divide
into five distinct
periods,
the ages of Credulity,
and
namely,
Inquiry, Faith, Reason,
to the periods of Infancy,
; answering
respectively
Decrepitude
and Old Age,
in the individ
Youth,
Manhood,
Childhood,
It soon appears,
ual*.
that
collective
however,
humanity
not to one individual, but to several;
for Grecian
corresponds
civilization
having passed through all these epochs, and having
modern
civilization
entered upon its career, in which
expired,
the estate of manhood.
it has by this time attained
Roman
a
as
is
treated
in
and
its
the
scale
history
digression,
position
The intellectual
de
is not clearly indicated.
of development
an
so
the
of
ancient
in
essential
element
the
Jews,
velopment
over.
as to
of civilization,
is entirely
And
history
passed
we
are
and
the
to
Asiatic
led
infer
great
communities,
Egypt
the
earlier
of
national
that, after running
through
stages
life,
they had, by the dawn of authentic history, arrived at old age.
The mere statement
of this arrangement
is doubtless
enough
to reveal its purely arbitrary character.
But the importance
of the subject will justify a closer examination.
Let us note
limits assigned
the chronological
by Dr. Draper to his succes
The Greek age of credulity,
sive epochs.
ending with Thales,
is followed by the age of inquiry, which closes with the Sophists.
to Karneades;
The age of faith extends from Sokrates
the age
to Claudius Ptolemseus;
the age of
of reason from Aristotle
from Philo
to the closing of the Attic schools by
decrepitude
the earlier parts of this
to criticise
Justinian.
Forbearing
it
that
be
remarked
the
may
scheme,
age of faith is an entirely
so
as
In
far
the labors of Sokrates
interpolation.
superfluous
resulted
in the application
*
of dialectics
Draper,
pp.
to logical
and ethnical
1, 11, 15.
1869.]
The Laws
ofHistory.
207
in
the period in question was an age of inquiry;
philosophy,
so far as they resulted
of an improved
in the establishment
It is indeed diffi
scientific method,
it was an age of reason.
can be regarded
cult to see how Pyrrho and the New Academy
or how Sokrates,
an
as the culminating
of
of
faith;
age
products
"
the
scientific
impulse which
originator of the most
powerful
* can be said to have ush
ever underwent,"
the Greek mind
It may likewise be asked, In what
ered in such a period.f
an
differ from an age of credulity ?
faith
does
of
age
respect
re
the attitude
assumed
If by faith we mean
by thoroughly
the universe under its unknow
in contemplating
ligious minds
able aspect, then an age of faith has not yet been reached, and,
it would
to the youth of mankind,
instead of corresponding
answer
The only other correct defi
to its fullest maturity.
it synonymous with credu-?
nition of faith is that which makes
classi
And whichever
of the two we adopt, Dr. Draper's
lity.
a failure.
fication must equally be pronounced
of the epochs of European history, there
In his arrangement
The age of credulity is not
is a still more
striking anomaly.
the period of
The age of inquiry embraces
distinctly marked.
the formation of Christian doctrine,
ending with the capture of
The age of faith extends from the foundation
Rome by Alaric.
it will
Thus
to the Renaissance.
of imperial Constantinople
are
centuries
that
the
Christian
first five
be noticed
assigned at
*
of Greece, Vol. VIII.,

Preface.
Grote, History
but
is strangely
whole account of Greek philosophy
t Dr. Draper's
inaccurate;
as his treatment of Sokrates.
He neither
no part of it betrays so much carelessness
nor his attitude toward physical
his relation to the Sophists
understands
investiga
on the
like Mr. Grote, have written
all that great scholars,
tion, quietly ignoring
is equally perverse, consisting
His treatment of Bacon
chiefly of wholesale
subject.
of inductive philosophy
because he did not
abuse directed against the great master
and Gilbert.
If great men were to be meas
of Copernicus
profit by the discoveries
all have to step
instead of their achievements,
ured by their shortcomings
they might
Leibnitz
from their pedestals.
;Laplace
rejected the law of gravitation
heaped con
re
the results of psychologic
Comte eschewed
tumely on the theories of Fresnel;
contradicted Aselli's
search ; Harvey
discovery of the lacteals ; and how often has
in derision
of one of the greatest
of life been quoted
Bichat's
unlucky definition
the world has ever seen.
observers
In Bacon's
thinkers and most consummate
day
the Copernican
grave difficulties attending
theory, which were first solved
a century later.
it is a mark
of
If
half
Newton,
genius
readily to accept new
by
to be dissatisfied with imperfect evidence.
it is no less a mark of wisdom
discoveries,
65 ; and Laplace,
Essai sur les Probabilites,
Order of Nature,
252.)
(See Powell,
there were
208 The Laws
ofHistory.
[July,
once
to the European
ages of inquiry and faith, and to the
ages of reason and decrepitude.
Now, who were the
as emerging
at that time from
Europeans who are represented
Greek
into intellectual
intellectual
childhood
youth ? They were for
the most part the very Greeks who, by the same philosophical
are said to have been passing
from manhood
into
indications,
The same influx of Oriental
old age.
upon Hellenic
thought
is judged to be at once an index of senile decay and of youthful
Can anything more clearly show the arbitrary charac
vigor.
was as much
a
? Christianity
ter of the whole
arrangement
as
and
Neo-Platonism.
thought
product of ancient
Porphyry
than Clement and Origen.
Proklos were no whit more Hellenic
It was the advent of the German
tribes which
the
introduced
state of things ; and the closing ages of antiquity cannot
modern
The elaboration
be rightly called either decrepit or immature.
of the Christian system was their absorbing work; and Christian
It
ity was in nowise the offspring of undeveloped
intelligence.
there was of greatest practical efficiency in
comprised whatever
in Greek dialectic,
and in Roman
Hebrew
theosophy,
jurispru
it fashioned
into the
dence ; and all this diversified material
which
the
of
mould
features
modern
upon
enduring
society
were destined
to be modelled.
of the childhood
of
Symptoms
more
be
for
the
bar
would
among
sought
judiciously
society
and Clovis;
and the degenerate
of Odoacer
barian followers
life might
of ancient
to the
continuation
perhaps be assigned
the Middle Ages,
lingered
empire, which
through
Byzantine
of the Grecian prime,
neither adding to the past achievements
nor taking part in the energetic movements
going on by its
was
existence
its
until
terminated
side,
profitless
by the sharp
Mussulman.
the
of
scymitar
The history of the Arabs, when
to
carefully studied, yields
no
better
no
Dr. Draper's
There
is
evidence
theory
support.
in by Mohammed
was pre
that the period of faith ushered
could be called an age of
ceded by anything which
inquiry.
and military
The century of glorious
religious
activity which
followed the death of the Prophet undoubtedly
culminated
in a
brilliant age of reason, which, long surviving the political decay
of the Arabian
empire, was only extinguished
by the arrival of
brute force in the shape of half-civilized
and bar
Spaniards
The Laws
1869.]
of History.
209
Herein
barous Turks.
an age
bian civilization
erations alone, that age
East with
the accession
one hundred
and
West
Yet
Almanzor.
hagib
lies the difficulty of assigning

to Ara
of decrepitude.
From political consid
in the
may be said to have commenced
of Motassem
(a. d. 838), and in the
fifty years' later, with the death of the
the most
illustrious
scientific
achieve
The great
took place long after this.
of the Ar#abs
of Averroes,
and
Arzachel,
Geber, Alhazen,
Algazzali,
are
all
within
eleventh
the
Avicenna,
comprised
century and
The dreary epoch of Almoravide
the first half of the twelfth.
supremacy was at the same time an epoch of active intellectual
ments
names
progress.
For the eminent rank which he assigns to Arabic civilization,

to the innumerable ways, hitherto not
and for calling attention
in
it has stimulated
which
the subse
recognized,
sufficiently
Dr.
of
is
to re
entitled
mankind,
quent development
Draper
But so much
cannot be said for the odd
ceive signal praise.
exhibited
throughout his work, not only to refer the
disposition
best part of Greek culture to an Egyptian
source,* but uniformly
to exalt the non-European
at the expense
civilizations
of the
an
has
This
obvious
with
connection
his
tendency
European.
that
the
an
Asiatic
in
nations
remote
great
passed
opinion
the
earlier
of
collective
and
arrived
stages
life,
tiquity through
how
long ago at a stationary but vigorous old age. History,
ever, does not afford the requisite data for enabling us to reason
Neither
upon the early state of Asia with much
certainty.
nor Egyptians
seem ever to have
Chinese, Hindus, Assyrians,
in their records ; and
the art of insuring authenticity
possessed
if we apply to the accounts of these ancient nations
the rigor
ous canons of criticism laid down by Lewis and Grote, we shall
come to the conclusion
that we really know but little about
it
be
to note that the extremely
well
But
will
them.
rude
of
the
structure
Chinese
and barbarous
is decidedly
language
at war with the theory that the Chinese
people have at any
and
the
most
time been notably progressive
;
cursory perusal
* The
priesthood
has been
tronomy
vol.
science possessed
extravagant
theory of a profound
by the Egyptian
and imparted to itinerant Greek philosophers,
from a remote antiquity,
in his learned work on the "As
by Sir G. C. Lewis,
utterly destroyed
of the Ancients/'
cix. ?
no.
224.
14
210The
Laws
of History.
[July,
of Confucius
the philological
infer
of the writings
strengthens
ence that China, far from having reached an advanced
stage of
a
has
been
at
low
fixed
very
irrevocably
point.
development,
"
is the
The nation whose
Sse
greatest
literary production
in stunted
be lingering
it
Chou" may perhaps
is
infancy;
a
old
not
to
While
with
green
age.
certainly
enjoying
regard
as well as Assyria,
and Hindustan,
it may be said that
Egypt
which
have adorned
the colossal monuments
those countries
to the former prevalence
times bear witness
since prehistoric
of a barbaric despotism
totally incompatible with social mobil
with
well-sustained
and
therefore
The sculptures
progress.*
ity,
these
upon
monuments,
moreover,
betoken
a very
undeveloped
of the
condition
be easy to show
sulted from the
a quite infantine
so far
of Egypt,
artistic faculties.
it would
Space permitting,
that the caste-system
of Hindustan
has re
of family relations
to
crystallization
peculiar
state of society, f And the social phenomena
as they are known, have similar implications.
to dwell too long upon details
of this sort, it may be
Not
of old age is altogether
that the hypothesis
inade
observed
of national decline.
quate to explain many striking phenomena
evidences of a falling off in civilization
have been found
Marked
some
the
and
the
North
American
Kalmucks,
among
Tunguz,
as
no
one
as
in
South
and
well
will
contend
Africa;
tribes,
J
case
these
modelled
of
in
the
archaically
communities,
that,
to senility.
I do not at
decline can be pronounced
equivalent
to the current opinion which
ascribes
the
tach much weight
to their conquest and absorp
of higher communities
declension
races ; though the conquest of mediaeval
tion by less cultivated
Russia
may perhaps be cited in its support.
by the Mongols
is thus compelled
to succumb to
For when a civilized nation
to
it
the
is
vital defects
of
presence
barbarians,
usually owing
to indi
in its internal structure, which may safely be presumed
decline.
Greece
could not
spontaneous
Rome
not have
would
sorbed by Macedon,
the
Moors
would
Teutonic.
assault,
Spanish
their empire, had not domestic decay preceded
cate
"
as a great latifundium,
Ancient
Egypt may be considered
as the king's
slaves." ?Lewis,
by the entire population
Primitive Marriage,
t M'Lennan,
p. 255..
of Mankind,
pp. 184, 185.
\ Tylor, Early History
vated
have
been
to
yielded
not have
and invited
ab
the
lost
for
or plantation,
culti
Astr. Anc,
p. 435.
1869.]
The Laws
of History.
211
But in neither of these three typical cases can

eign violence.
as an index of political
the growing weakness
be interpreted
.The Greeks were conquered because
old age.
they had never
attained political stability, though if Athens had been victorious
war they might have done so.
in the Peloponnesian
Instead of
an
numerous
their
to
form
nation,
integral
gradually uniting
had by mutual
civic communities
repulsion
continually weak
of
But the unsocial
to which
ened each other.
spirit
autonomy,
in the earliest period
this result was due, was at its maximum
and cannot therefore be consid
of authentic Grecian
history,
The fatal defects in Roman
civil
ered a symptom of old age.
ization were the draining away of the rural population of Italy for
and the consequent
military purposes,
expansion of slave labor ;
a
the lack of
system of government,
which, with
representative
an imperial
rendered necessary
territorial enlargement,
despot
of political
ism ; and the ignorance
allowed
economy which
to establish a maximum
C. Gracchus
price for corn, and which
revenues to the
of
the
administration
the
provincial
consigned
Moorish
civilization
rapacity of private speculators.
perished^
or ecclesiastic
it had no municipal,
because
bodies
aristocratic,
interposed between the caliph and his equally enslaved subjects.
have any special con
None of these flaws in social organization
to the earlier
nection with
senility.
They
belong
overripe
life. And I believe
rather than to the latter epochs of national
if narrowly scrutinized, will yield no support what
that history,
ever to the statement
that nations grow old and die.
Dr. Draper's
theory that social life repeats the phases of in
dividual
life will not, therefore, bear a critical examination.
as are the considerations
which have been ad
Fragmentary
to
his
that
division
of history into
still
suffice
prove
duced, they
that
fanciful, and they imply moreover
epochs is thoroughly
similar
be
it
numerous
sustained
every
division,
though
by
are
facts, must
by other facts which
surely be overthrown
Dr.
is
as
essential.
arrangement
equally
Draper's
perhaps
as
framed
other
with
which
be
could
minute
any
equal
good
ness ; but all such attempts must
ever be impracticable,
be
cause they rest upon an unproved
and unprovable
assumption.
the assimilation
of the social to the human organism
Against
In the first
may be urged two insurmountable
objections.
212The Laws
of History.
[July,
a social aggregate
has no definite form.
It has no sym
or
has not even
either
bilateral.
It
radial,
metry,
spherical,
the onollusks.
the specific unsymmetry
characterizes
which
in its external
to the last degree
and irregular
Fluctuating
to a polypdom
shape, society might more fitly be compared
In the second place, the
than to anything higher in the scale.
"
do not and cannot lose individual con
living units of society
"
as a whole has no corpo
the community
while
sciousness,"
"
rate consciousness."
The corporate life must here be subser
vient to the lives of the parts;
instead of the lives of the parts
to the corporate
Of these distinc
subservient
life."*
being
is the more
tions, the second
important, but both are funda
place,
Owing to the Protean

changes undergone
by society
in its figure, it has been impossible
for Dr. Draper clearly to
of which past his
determine
the number of social biographies
Yet either the whole human race must, on his
tory consists.
?
as was done by Pascal,
theory, be likened to one individual,
?
or its separate communities
must be likened to several indi
In the first case, we have an individual,
of which
viduals.
some parts develop, while
and in the second
others do not;
some
of whom, while
case, we have a company of individuals
mental.
others have lingered

have attained various
stages of maturity,
?
these
last
the
in perpetual
With
savage
stationary
infancy.
even pretend
to deal.
tribes ? Dr. Draper's
theory cannot
not even a superficial
resemblance
to
Their history presents
life. The human child either dies or grows to man
individual
in an Egyptian
Seeds kept for centuries
hood.
sepulchre may
flourish
pension
when
exposed
of development
to sunlight, but with man

is out of the question.f
such
a sus
2d series, p. 154.
Spencer's Essays,
as a formula for intellectual
t Viewed
development
in Dr. Draper's
truth contained
theory has been much
of the three
in his well-known
doctrine
by Comte,
alone, the slight amount of

more accurately
enunciated
stages of mental
progress.
is a
through
inquiry to knowledge
mind
advances
from credulity
the only one, of the alleged parallelism
between
the
instance, and probably
and the race.
This kind of progression,
individual
together with a vast number of
is expressed
in Comte's
statement
that human
other striking conceptions,
thought
the metaphysical,
into the positive stage.
has passed from the theological,
through
To these three periods Dr. Draper's
ages of credulity,
inquiry, and reason may be
to correspond
said roughly
; though the latter, far more than the former, partake of
That
the human
marked
the nature of chronological

value.
and a diminished
epochs,
and have
accordingly
a curtailed
applicability
1869.]
The Laws
of History.
213
But though Dr. Draper's

theory does not express the truth, it
an approximation
A so
to the truth.
nevertheless
contains
to a man, but it may still be
indeed be compared
ciety cannot
treated as an organism.
And the laws of social evolution will
have been to a great extent determined,
if they can be proved
to be identical with the laws of organic evolution.
The law
to
which
in
the
animal
and
takes
progress
according
place
Von
extended
has
been
discovered
Baer,
vegetable worlds,
by
to the phenomena
A
of human
Spencer.
society by Herbert
few illustrations
of the general
law of organic evolution will
assist the reader in understanding
the special laws next to be
stated.
on generation
The researches
the truth
established
of Harvey
that every animal has at some period of its existence
consisted
and homogeneous
germ. Whether
simply of a structureless
this germ is detached
from the parent organism at each gener
ation, as in all the higher animals, or only at intervals of sev
as in the Aphides,
or plant-lice, matters
eral generations,
not
case
to the general
In
the
state
every
argument.
primitive
of an animal is a state of almost complete homogeneity.
The
a
no
of
for
obvious
charac
lion,
instance, possesses
germ-cell
teristic whereby
from the germ-cell
it can be distinguished
of a
horse or a dog. Moreover
each part of it is as nearly as pos
sible like every other part, in texture, in chemical composition,
in temperature,
and in specific gravity.
in
Here,
therefore,
two ways it is seen that homogeneity
is the parent of hetero
In the first place, all animal germs are homogeneous
geneity.
with respect to each other, while
the animals developed
from
them present
all kinds and degrees of diversity;
and, in the
second place, each germ is homogeneous
with regard to itself,
while the creature developed
from it is extremely heterogene
ous.
The successive differentiations
and integrations
by which
this change is brought about may be found described
in any
modern work on organic development,
and need here be but
The first differentiation
is that between
the
briefly sketched.
outer coating of the cell on the one hand, and its interior con
tents on the other hand.
The outer coating
is then differ
entiated
become
into two layers,

the nervo-muscular
the outer
system,
destined
to
layer being
the inner layer to produce
214The Laivs
of History.
[July,
Between
these two, by a further
apparatus.
digestive
of
the circulatory
arises
the
rudiment
differentiation,
system.
canal
from the alimentary
Then are successively
differentiated
the liver, stomach, and various secreting glands, until the once
intestine
becomes
very complex.
Along with
homogeneous
the
is going on in the outer layer:
this, a parallel process
nervous
system, at first appearing as a mere groove upon the
hetero
surface of the germ, finally exhibits an almost endless
First, there is the difference between white and gray
geneity.
the cerebrum,
between
tissue ; then there are the differences
the
the medulla
the spinal cord, and
the cerebellum,
oblongata,
is ex
the sympathetic
system, each of which parts, moreover,
are
in itself; and then there
the innu
tremely heterogeneous
connec
differences
entailed by the highly complicated
merable
one
nervous
and
centre
between
tions established
another, by
and en
the inextricable
inosculations,
crossings,
interlacings,
nerves
sets
with
each
of
different
of
other, and by
tanglements
are distributed
that some nerves
the circumstance
upon mus
These will
cles, others upon glands, and others upon ganglia.
as
cases
of inte
of differentiation.
suffice as examples
Then,
are
all
the
which
the
union
of
be
cited
bile-cells,
gration, may
one after another differentiated
from the surface of the alimen
organ, the liver; and also the
tary canal, into one distinct
It should be
union of the anterior vertebrae to form the skull.
is just as essential a part of the whole
noted that integration
as differentiation.
If the latter alone took place, we
process
and tissues.
of organs
should have simply a chaotic medley
a
are
to
Both
system of organs
requisite
produce
operations
in concert.
And
if either process goes on
capable of working
and often death, is the
in
of
the
any part
alone,
body, disease,
tumors are
and
result.
lupi exedentes,
Cancers,
malignant
never
which,
integrated
becoming
merely vague differentiations,
and
in harmony with the rest of the organism, end by maiming
a
full
the
list
of
differentiations
it.
To
give
finally destroying
which take place in the course of the evolution of a single indi
vidual would be to write the entire history of the animal organ
and whoever will take the
This was done by Von Baer;
ism.
will have the truth
trouble to read his Entwickelungsgeschichte
evolution
is a
thrust upon him at every page that organic
1869.]
The
Laws
of History.
215
to heterogeneity.
To Mr. Spencer
change from homogeneity
must be assigned
the honor of having demonstrated
that inte
to definiteness
of
gration, or the change from indefiniteness
is an equally vital part of the process.
structure,
to definite
the advance
from indefinite
Now
homogeneity
or
and
which
in
constitutes
structure
function,
heterogeneity
the chief
has been found to be equally
ganic development,
So
characteristic
On considering
of social progress.
primitive
we
causes
no
find
them affected by
of heterogeneity,
cieties,
those resulting
from the establishment
of the various
except
Mr.
Maine
As
has
shown, in early times
family relationships.
the family and not the individual was the social unit.
In the
or even civic organization,
absence of anything
like national
in miniature,
each family chief was a monarch
in his
uniting
own person the functions of king, priest, judge, and parliament;
yet he was no less a digger and hewer than his subject chil
and brethren.
it is needless
to
dren, wives,
Commercially,
are
all
communities
In
state,
any
homogeneous.
primitive
tribe the number of different
is very
employments
are
as
and
there
admit
of
such
undertaken
indis
limited,
being
man
own
one.
his
is
and
butcher
by any
Every
criminately
own
own
and
his
his
tailor
and
his
smith,
baker,
carpenter,
own weapon-maker.
Now the progress of such a society toward
a civilized
and inte
the differentiation
condition
begins with
That
each
of
of
specialization
occupations.
productive
gration
increased efficiency of production, which reacting
labor entails
is known to the tyro in
brings out still greater
specialization,
Nor is it less obvious that, with the advance
political economy.
in heteroge
labor has been steadily increasing
of civilization,
sets
among different
neity, not only with regard to its division
and even its
of laborers, but also with regard to its processes,
barbarous
characteristic
of modern ma
instruments.
The distinguishing
chinery, as compared with the rude tools of the Middle Ages or
is its heterogeneity.
the clumsy apparatus of the ancients,
The
of to-day and the pulleys,
the steam-engine
contrast between
screws, and levers of a thousand years ago assures us that the
of the objects which labor aims at is paral
growing complexity
of the modes
leled by the growing
of attaining
complexity
we see that by differentiation
to government,
them.
Turning
216The
Laws
of History.
[July,
in the primeval
some families
supreme
community
acquired
while
others
to the
power,
sank, though in different degrees,
rank of subjects.
The integration
of aljied families into tribes,
and of adjacent tribes into nations,
as well as that kind of inte
a
at
in
exhibited
later
date
the closely knit diplomatic
gration
are marked
of different countries,
interrelations
steps in social
mentioned
the
Next
differentiation
of'the
progress.
maybe
into
and
the
civil
the
while
ecclesiastical;
power
governing
by
the side of these ceremonial
grows up insensibly
government
as a third power, regulating
the minor
details of social inter
course none the less potently because not embodied
in statutes
and edicts.
and
the
of
augurs
antiquity
Comparing
priests
with the dignitaries
of the mediaeval Church, the much greater
of the latter system becomes manifest.
Civil
heterogeneity
likewise has become differentiated
into executive,
government
and judicial.
Executive
has been di
legislative,
government
vided into many branches,
in different nations.
and diversely
A comparison of the Athenian
popular government with the rep
resentative
systems of the present day shows that the legislative
its origi
function has no more than any of the others preserved
nal homogeneity.
While
the contrast between
the Aula Re
gis of the Norman kings and the courts of common law, equity,
?
and
admiralty,
county
courts,
queen's
courts,
State
courts,
and Federal courts, ? which are lineally descended

from it, tells
us the same story concerning
the judicial power.
Nor should
it be forgotten
that the steady expansion
of legal systems, to
meet the exigencies which civilization
renders daily more com
an
to
advance
from
is
homogeneity
heterogeneity.
plex,
law of organic
Not only is the general
thus
development
in the internal progress of all nations,
it is also con
illustrated
in the divergent
courses pursued
exemplified
by
spicuously
a common origin.
which
have
from
communities
started
many
The Germanic
tribes, which in the fifth and sixth centuries ac
over Roman Europe, were nearly homogeneous
control
quired
The description
of the Germans,
respect to each other.
have applied
left by Tacitus, would doubtless
indiscriminately
and Lombards.
to Goths, Saxons, Franks,
None of them had
the primitive
far beyond
advanced
system of gov
patriarchal
nor
them
much
had
of
industrial
any
ernment,
experienced
with
1869.]
The Laws
of History.
217
differentiation
; and so there was but little scope left them for
Even so late as the twelfth
the display of social unlikenesses.
commu
of
each
structure
the
interior
great European
century,
points of detail, very similar to that
nity was, except in minor
The feudal system, chivalry, the crusading
of all the others.
serfdom, baronial
isolation,
monasticism,
spirit, scholasticism,
?
these were the striking
supremacy,
private war, ecclesiastical
as well as in Spain,
features of society at that time, in England
But in our day the heterogene
in France as well as in Italy.
nations are differen
The so-called Anglo-Saxon
ity is notable.
individualism
all
their
from
the
rest
tiated
; but the
by
political
the free
from
also
differs
America
of
free organization
widely
on
the
other
of
hand, is not
Absolutism,
England.
organization
nor
is Catholi
same
is
in
it
that
in
Austria
the
France,
thing
.the
that it is in Spain ; while
cism the same thing in France
to the
bears little resemblance
of Prussia
free Protestantism
and Sweden.
narrow Protestantism
of Scotland
the human race, ethnologically
Whether
considered, has ever
a
is perhaps uncer
to
close
homogeneity,
approach
presented
it is immaterial
For our present
tain.
however,
purpose,
are descended
from one
the various races of mankind
whether
It is enough
stocks.
stock or from several primitive
primitive
social progress
there has been marked
to show that where
The widely
ethnic differentiation.
there has also been marked
now so rapid
American
of
tribes
Indians,
unprogressive
spread
to the end their ancient phys
have retained
ly disappearing,
But in the descend
moral
and
homogeneity.
ical, intellectual,
from the flabby and pursy
ants of the primitive Indo-Europeans,
to the wiry and long-limbed Kentuckian,
Hindu
may be seen
differ
entailed
the immense heterogeneity
by long-continued
and of physical environment.
ences of social organization
They
of
unlikenesses
numberless
size,
complexion,
strength,
present
and
of moral susceptibility,
conformation,
feature, of anatomical
is to be found
illustration
Still
further
of intellectual
capacity.
in the languages
Eight fam
spoken by these Aryan nations.
a
to a score
dozen
half
from
each
ilies of languages,
containing
the com
are
from
descended
of mutually
dialects,
unintelligible
our
before
ancestors
mon mother
they
Aryan
tongue spoken by
The development
of the Hindu Kush.
had left the neighborhood
218 The Laws
of History.
[July,
of the Semitic languages from a single parent tongue furnishes

a parallel example.
But this is far from being the whole of the
in itself
case, for a careful study of the structure of language
and in
shows that its growth
takes place by differentiation
some
I
have
collected
evidence
of
this ;
elsewhere*
tegration.
takes place in
proving, among other things, that integration
as
the progressive
coalescence
of roots with their terminations,
well as in the concentration
of syllabic sounds, and in the in
of
logical coherence of clauses ; while the generation
creasing
the rise of parts of speech, the growth of widely diver
dialects,
from a common
root, as well as the growth of
gent words
a common stock, were shown
from
widely divergent
languages
to be prominent
instances of differentiation.
Mr. Spencer
But, by a still greater
sweep of generalization,
in Von Baer's
formula
the changes
included
has likewise
the development
traced
which
of inorganic
nature,
having
a vast number
it describes
of phenomena,
both
throughout
and cosmic.f
telluric
Thus, by reason of its very compre
can no longer
the law of universal
evolution
hensiveness,
we desire regarding
supply the precise kind of information
It is the law not only of social changes
historic phenomena.
but of all other changes.
hu
It utters no truth concerning
man
not
all
which
is
true
of
development
development*
it is the ultimate
it is silent respect
law of history,
Though
a historic
event
characteristic
by which
ing the differential
is distinguished
from a physical
event.
The ultimate
and
one
formula
needs
to
be
that
is
general
supplemented
by
and special; which
derivative
shall describe
evolu
organic
tion in terms
to inorganic
which
inapplicable
phenomena;
shall be, in short, a comprehensive
definition
of life. This
in 1855.
additional
In his
step was taken by Mr. Spencer,
"
of
in
that
is
to be
year,
Principles
Psychology,"
published
"
found the first statement
of that
definition
of
life,"
proximate
as distin
the law of organic
which
contains
by implication
guished
from
inorganic
progress.
* "The Evolution
1863.
of Language,"
North American
Review,
October,
t First Principles
(2d ed.), pp. 308-396.
for social progress,
it had already been foreshadowed,
X As a formula
though
full consciousness
of its entire significance,
in Mr.
probahly without
Spencer's
Social
Statics,
published
four years
earlier.
The Laws
1869.]
of History.
219
intelli
life -?and
to this exhaustive
definition,
According
of life?>
known manifestation
gence likewise, as the highest
of relations within
in the continuous
consists
establishment
in correspondence
the organism
with relations already existing
in the environment.
The degree of life is high or low accord
internal and external rela
between
ing as the correspondence
or simple, extensive
or limited, complete or
tions is complex
The lowest forms of life respond
partial, perfect or imperfect.
af
only to the simpler and more homogeneous
changes which
fect
the whole
The relations
of their surrounding medium.
a plant answer only to the presence
or ab
established within
sence of a certain quantity of light and heat, and to the chem
ical and hygrometric
relations
in the enveloping
existing
In a zoophyte,
and subjacent
soil.
besides
gen
atmosphere
a special
eral relations
similar to these there is established
relation
in correspondence
with the external
existence
of cer
on
so
tain mechanical
that its tentacles contract
irritants,
being
as we as
The increased number of correspondences,
touched.
the polyp,
cend the animal
scale, may be seen by contrasting
can
and
which
insoluble mat
between soluble
simply distinguish
in its environment,
ters, or between
opacity and translucence
and the far-sighted vulture.
with the keen-scented
bloodhound
And the increase of complexity may be appreciated
by compar
gone through by the polyp on the
ing the motions
respectively
one hand, and by the dog or vulture on the other, while se
to higher
and disposing
The
advance
of its prey.
curing
in the.orderly
of internal
forms of life consists
establishment
to external
relations of sequence answering
relations
of coex
istence and sequence,
that are continually more heterogeneous,
more remote
in space and in time, and at once more general
until at last we reach civilized man, whose
and more special;
to every variety
of external
stimulus,
are
ordinary
supplied by apparatus of amaz
are often deter
and whose mental
sequences
ing complexity,
as
as
mined
and as
circumstances
distant
the
by
Milky Way,
ancient as the birth of the solar system.
The lower forms of life respond
to the changes going on
A tree, for
about them only in an imperfect and general way.
intelligence
whose most
instance,
responds
meeting
needs
by changes
within
itself
none
but physical
220The Laws
of History.
[July,
and chemical
exhibits
life in a very simple
changes without,
as
form. We habitually
less alive than a polyp, be
regard it
sen
cause the polyp, by displaying
and nascent
contractility
a
to
stimuli.
sitiveness,
greater variety of external
responds
no specialized
the zoophyte, possessing
Yet
organs of sense,
can oppose but one sort of action to many diverse kinds of im
as those of light and heat,
so different
Phenomena
pression.
can
affect it in but one or ttvo
sound and mechanical
vibration,
?
or
ways,
by causing it to move,
by slightly altering its chem
ical condition.
of re
Here
let it be noticed
that the modes
than those
sponse to outer relations are far less heterogeneous
now
at the
to
civilized
relations
themselves.
man,
Passing
other end of the animal scale, we find a state of things exactly
the reverse.
To each kind of external stimulus there are many
of response.
modes
Not only, for example, does the
possible
human organism
between variations which
sharply distinguish
affect the ear ; not only do eye
affect the eye and those which
are themselves
and ear, which
organs of amazing complexity,
an
tones and hues, as well
number
of
endless
discern
differing
as a great variety of intensities
and qualities
; but each partic
ular manifestation
of sound or of light is capable of awakening
to circum
actions
in the organism
very different
according
in a
at
stances.
traveller, who, walking
nightfall
Tennyson's
a
distant
the
of
hears
sea,
strange land,
moaning
" And
Of
knows
rocks
Of great
not
thrown
wild
or a sound
if it be thunder,
down, or one deep cry
beasts,"
will adopt a course of action more or less in conformity with

to the degree of his sagacity
his environing
relations, according
Streaks of light and strata
extent
of
his
and the
experience.
and the
the
lead
in
the
horizon
will
of cloud
practised mariner
cartoon
of
A
to
different
conclusions.
unskilled
passenger
different
a
excite
or
Beethoven
will
of
symphony
Raphael
of little sensibility.
in an artist and in a person
emotions
a philosopher
will
And from the swinging of a cathedral
lamp
or baffled
the attention
draw inferences which have escaped
beholders.
of uncultivated
of thousands
the penetration
Thus,
in
stimuli are surpassed
external
with civilized man, present
effects.
their
internal
by
heterogeneity
The Laws
1369.]
of History.
221
the environment
advances
Note
also that as the organism
of
The environment
in extent and diversity.
itself increases
an oyster
covers but a few yards of beach or of water, and
The physi
but few favorable or hostile influences.
comprises
a great
over
a
extends
modern
cal environment
of
European
is
environment
part of the earth's surface, and his mental
or
not
unfre
His
welfare
is
in
time
limited
space.
scarcely
at the antipodes, while
occurring
quently affected by accidents
his plans for the coming year are often shaped with conscious
or unconscious
to events which happened
centuries
reference
ago.
we
are
to look upon Mr.

led almost
imperceptibly
as furnishing
the
life
of
key to the phe
Spencer's
in
it
is
that
nomena of history.
possible,
illustrating
Scarcely
a
to
the
facts
collec
to
reference
avoid
continual
of
definition,
life.
tive as well as to those of individual
Indeed, since the
a
the
acts
made
of
of its individual
of
is.
up
community
history
a
abstract
be expected
formula
members,
sufficiently
might
to be capable of including both in one expression.
History
in each a progress
not because
is traced
resembles
biology,
Thus
definition
both record
the ad
infancy to old age, but because
to completeness
of correspondence
from incompleteness
as a whole and by societies.
The
achieved alike by organisms
a
like that of organisms,
of society,
is, throughout,
progress
If we contemplate material
civilization
process of adaptation.
its legitimate
aim to be
under
its widest
aspect, we discover
of an equilibrium between the
and maintenance
the attainment
of satisfying
them. And
wants of men and the outward means
ever
is
in its
this
while
goal, society
acquiring
approaching
from
vance
and greater
greater
heterogeneity
commerce,
manufactures,
Agriculture,
legisla
specialization.
have
tion, the acts of the ruler, the judge, and the physician,
times
ancient
both
in
since
grown immeasurably
multiform,
And here it is to be carefully
and appliances.
their processes
in the greatly
has resulted
in
noted that this specialization
to
itself
to
the
of
creased ability
adapt
emergencies
by
society
The history of scientific progress
it is ever beset.
is in
which
the history of an advance
toward complete corre
like manner
economic
structure
spondence
between
both
our mental
conceptions
and outward
reali
222 The Laws
of History.
[July?
and successful
is the end of all honest
Truth, which
are perfectly
when
attained
relations
is
research,
subjective
can
And
the consum
to
relations.
what
be
adjusted
objective
mation
of moral progress but the thorough
adaptation of the
desires of each individual to the requirements
arising from the
? Thus the phenomena
individuals
desires of all neighboring
of social and of organic progress are seen to correspond to a de
gree not contemplated
by those thinkers who first instituted
The resemblances
here brought
the comparison between them.
than those which Dr. Draper
to light are far more deep-seated
to deduce from a mere collation of
and others have endeavored
ties.
The dominant
characteristics
of all life are those in
epochs.
life agree.
which social and individual
Let us now glance at one or two subordinate
truths, which
of the general theory.
will greatly^ facilitate the comprehension
that life is high according
First, from the twofold circumstance
as the organism
and also according as it is
is heterogeneous,
to surrounding
conditions, may be derived the corol
adjusted
in
the environment
that
is one of the chief
heterogeneity
lary
causes
The
environment
of a
of
social
progress.
determining
or
all
the
remote, to
circumstances,
adjacent
society comprises
the society may be in any way obliged to conform its
which
not only the climate of the country, its
It comprises
actions.
and
its relation
its
flora
elevation,
fauna, its perpendicular
soil,
the length of its coast-line,
the character
to mountain-chains,
of its scenery, and its geographical
position with respect to
but it includes also the ideas, feelings, cus
other countries;
of past times, so far as they are pre
toms, and observances
or monuments;
as well
as
served by literature,
tradition,
manners
so
are
as
and
far
opinions,
they
foreign contemporary
and regarded by the community
in question.
Premis
seen
it
will
be
to
the
isolation
of
that,
this,
owing
political
ing
the heterogeneity
ancient communities,
of their environments
must have been trifling.
but little intercourse with
Holding
their deeds and opinions most
each other, and accommodating
at home,
their progress was
existing
ly to the conditions
feeble and halting.
And for the same reason, their
usually
were far more
of life and their mental
modes
development
known
deeply
impressed
with
the characteristics
of surrounding
nature
The Laws
1869.]
of History.
223
than is the case in modern

Herein
times.
is contained what
ever of truth is conveyed
in Mr. Buckle's
that in
statement,
more
man
been
than
but of
has
while
nature,
powerful
Europe
Europe
nature
has
been
more
powerful
than
man.
The
con
trast is not between Europe and the rest of the world, but be
of antiquity and the integrated
tween the isolated civilizations
of modern
civilization
times.
Owing to the enormous hetero
to
which
modern nations are forced
of
the
environment
geneity
in later ages has been far more
to adjust themselves,
progress
The physical well
stable than of old.
rapid and far more
an
was
not
enhanced
of
ancient
Greek
by an invention
being
in China, nor could his philosophy
made
derive useful hints
in India.
But in these days scarcely
from theories propounded
can happen in one part of our planet which does not
anything
speedily affect every other part. That the rapid and permanent
is in great measure
of modern
due to this
character
progress
no
one.
And thus is explained
denied
circumstance will be
by
effect of various
events which have
the wonderful
civilizing
distant
sections of man
from time to time brought
together
to name the cam
it will be sufficient merely
kind ; of which
the spread of Roman
of Alexander,
the
dominion,
paigns
and
the
the
of
Arabian
voyages
Crusades,
Columbus,
conquests,
and De Gama.
Magellan,
" the law which
in organic beings
Now
governs the changes
is such that the lower their place in a graduated
scale, or the
more
are
the
their
structure,
persistent
they in form
simpler
and
whatever
organization.In
manner
the
changes
....
the rate of change has been
been brought
about,
is higher."*
And this
the
of
where
organization
grade
greater
"
as
more
com
from
the
fact Mr. Darwin
resulting
interprets
to
their
and
relations
of
the
inor
higher beings
organic
plex
the
and
life."
fact
its
of
conditions
Comparing
expla
ganic
above given, it will be
nation with the historical
generalization
seen that we have here a new point of community
between
have
life and organic life in general.

observe that the living beings lowest in the scale
Secondly,
are nothing but simple cells, as witness
the Protococcus
and the
"
In
volume
of
the
second
his
of
Biol
Rhizopoda.
Principles
social
*. Lyell,
Antiquity
of Man,
pp. 441, 442.
224 The Laws
of History.
[July*
in morphological
ogy," Mr. Spencer has shown that progress
in
animal
both
the
con
and
composition,
vegetable kingdoms,
sists to a certain extent of the union of these primeval
cells
into aggregates
and higher orders.
of higher
Note also that
the coalescence
of adjacent
like functions,
parts performing
such as we see in the crab when
contrasted with the milliped,
is a leading feature in organic development;
for this process,
the
of
the
thus steadily
increasing
specialization
organism,
to the environment.
facilitates
its adaptation
In the study of
social evolution, we are met by quite similar phenomena.
Let
us consider what
is implied by the conclusions
to which Mr.
Maine has arrived in his admirable
treatise on Ancient
Law by
an elaborate inquiry into the early ideas of property,
contract,
and into primitive
and testamentary
criminal legis
succession,
"
in ancient
times was not what
lation:
it. is as
Society
oi individuals.
In fact,
sumed to be at present, a collection
and in the view of the men who composed
it, it was an aggre
The contrast may be most
of families.
forcibly ex
an
that
the
unit
of
ancient
society was the
pressed by saying
We must be pre
society the individual,
family, of a modern
of this differ
pared to find in ancient law all the consequences
* Evidences
of this state of things are to be detected
ence."
in the internal structure of all the Aryan communities.!
Re
has revealed a still more archaic condi
cently, Mr. M'Lennan
in which
not even the family,
tion of humanity,
properly
over this state, ?
But
in which
passing
existed.^
speaking,
to those lowest Rhiz
the social units might be aptly compared
?
atten
opods which have scarcely any individuality whatever,
like
unicellular
tion is called to the fact that primitive
families,
are aggregates
of the first order.
The family gov
organisms,
gation
individual
but also
independence,
a
no
were
of
time
when
there
Vestiges
supremacy.
men more extensive
than
the
of
and
when
family,
aggregations
there was no sovereign
authority except that exercised
by the
ernment
excluded
not
only
state
* Ancient
t Witness
Law, p. 126.
Roman
Celtic Clans, Hindu
and Slavonic
gentes, Greek phratries,
see Tac. Germ. VII.;
and for the Teutons,
Caes. B. G. VI.
village-communities;
22, 23.
p. 229.
%Primitive Marriage,
'
The Laws
1869.]
of History.
225
head of the family, may be found in every part of the world.*

is but one step removed
social organization
At this period,
and ferocious
from absolute
anarchy.
"Mistrust,
jealousy,
"
and implacable vengeances
characterize
secret ambushes,
the
relations of these social aggregates
mutual
of the first order.
is the rule, and peace the exception.
The repulsive
Hostility
forces are stronger and the cohesive forces weaker than at any
The sympathetic
subsequent
period.
feelings, whereby man is
are as yet unawakened
from
the
beasts
;
chiefly distinguished
and the selfish desires which tend to maintain
savage isolation
are unchecked
save by family affection,
the most
instinctive
and originally
the least generous
of civilizing emotions.
The expansion
of families
into tribes and their coalescence
into civic communities
illustrates
the formation
of social ag
For a long time these higher
of the second order.
gregates
retain conspicuous
traces of their mode of composi
aggregates
and Rome, until increasing
tion, as in Greece
heterogeneity
new di
obliterates
lines of demarcation;
the original
while
visions spring up, resulting from the integration
of like parts,
as is seen in the guilds of mediaeval Europe,
and still better in
of industries which marks
the localization
the present time.
The advance from the civic or rural f community
to the na
an aggregate
of the third order?
tion ?
is best exemplified
in
the history of France, which, from a disorderly
collection
of in
transitions
into
baronies, has passed by well-defined
dependent
a perfectly
The
attainment
of
this
integral empire.
stage is a
cardinal event in social life, and an indispensable
preliminary
to a career of permanent
As hinted above, the pre
progress.
mature
overthrow
of the Hellenic
if
system is mainly,
political
not solely, to be attributed
to its very incomplete
integration.
An aggregate of the national type was in process of being formed
coalescence
of maritime
cities under the lead
by the extensive
war supervened,
of
the
when
in
Athens,
ership
Peloponnesian
dicating
the superiority
of selfish
autonomy,
and showing
by its.
*
on Jurisprudence,
of the United
View
States,
p. 397 ; Phillipp
Volney's
Li v. III. c. 28; Arist,
14 ; Grote,.
Eth. Nic. VIII.
p. 207 ; C. Comte, Legislation,
Gibbon
H. G..III.
Scienza Nuova^ Opere,
48-69;
(Paris ed.), III. 243; Vico,
Tom.
IV. pp. 23, 35, 40.
or a modifica
civic community
t A rural community may be either an incipient
tion of the tribe.
vol.
cix. ?
no. 224.
15
226 The Laws
of History.
[July?
was as yet too

result that the civilizing
spirit of nationality
feeble to prevail.
It was first under the Roman
that national aggre
dominion
to
and
the
of
national
gation
feeling
solidarity were developed
all
like
the
petty
something
completeness.
By absorbing nearly
to their
communities
then existing, and by gradually extending
suc
members
the privileges
of citizenship,
the Roman Empire
a blow from
to the passion
ceeded in dealing
for autonomy
extent of
it has never recovered;
the enormous
which
while
to
the na
the Empire, and its ethnic heterogeneity,
imparted
character
destined
tional spirit thus invoked a cosmopolitan
The influence
to be of great service to civilization.
afterwards
attitude of Chris
of these circumstances
upon the subsequent
No human mind
tianity cannot be too strongly insisted upon.
less have carried into execu
could have even conceived, much
if the antique
state of
tion, the idea of a universal
religion,
been brought to a close by
social isolation had not previously
If Christianity
had appeared four centuries
empire.
like Buddhism,
have assumed
the
earlier than it did, it would,
Or if it could have aimed
garb of a local religious reformation.
at anything
higher than this, its preaching would have fallen
ears
not
upon
ready to receive it. All the Oriental enthusiasm,
all the Hellenic
subtilty of Paul, could have effected nothing,
in the days of Plato and Diogenes.
But
had he visited Athens
in Roman
civilization was just that
element
the cosmopolitan
universal
From this happy

which Christianity most readily assimilated.
there was formed upon the ruins
concurrence
of circumstances,
which
alone of all
that religious
of Paganism
organization
earned
has
the
have
existed
that
churches
glorious name of
in later
at her high-handed
proceedings
Disgusted
too
that
the
have
Roman
frequently
forgotten
times, historians
and progressive
the most vigorous
Church, by co-ordinating
civilization
both
elements of ancient life, has given to modern
Catholic.
Had
the Church
and its permanence.
its ubiquity
perished
amid
the
in
the
with
Empire,
general wreck of ancient
along
see
to
could
it
is
difficult
have
how
stitutions,
European history
been anything else than a repetition of Grecian history, save-only
is disposed
to
in the extent of its geographical
range. Whoever
an
so
assertion
do
not
con
will
to
doubt
well,
emphatic
only
1869.]
The Laws
of History.
227
the immeasurable
reli
of the Scandinavian
inferiority
but likewise duly to
gions, compared with early Christianity,
ponder the fact that the German conquerors of Rome had not
On their
advanced
the stage of tribal organization.
beyond
into rural and civic bodies, the autonomous
aggregation
spirit
it would have taken
would have acquired an ascendancy which
another more fortunate Athenian
federation, or another absorb
to destroy.
Even as it was,
ing Roman
'domination, thoroughly
sider
it required all the immense power of the Church, unflinchingly

to prevent
exercised
generations,
through many
European
a
mere
of mutually
into
from
collection
disintegrating
society
But the Church not only pre
tribal communities.
repelling
the
served the social results of Roman dominion,
by hastening
it also, by its pe
consolidation
of each embryonic nationality;
the different states,
culiar position as common arbiter between
to the formation of a new social aggregate
contributed
of the
of
order.
The
modern
nationali
highest
system
independent
not by international
ties held in virtual federation ?
codes, but
or less
more
of
the
of
conduct
by
guiding principles
possession
the work of the Roman Church.
heartily reverenced
by all?is
a system whose
we
have
reached
structure bears
Here, finally,
in the highest
the
of
marks
It is sus
permanence.
degree
of cosmopolitan
sentiments
tained by the ever-deepening
phi
most
cohesive of social
lanthropy and universal
justice,?the
forces, as the spirit of local selfishness was the most
disrup
tive.
we find the development

of society corre
throughout,
a
in
to
remarkable
the
of organ
sponding
degree
development
isms as a whole.
By the special comparisons which have been
the general
is illustrated
instituted,
theory of social evolution
As far as the inquiry has gone, ? and it
while it is confirmed.
?
the claims of Mr. Spencer's
further,
might be carried much
life to be considered
the law of history
law of organic
are
As far as humanity
is a manifestation
thoroughly vindicated.
Thus,
of collective
life, the law of its progress may be said to be
determined.
But to render the interpretation
coextensive
with
the phenomena,
another consideration
must
be brought
for
Our law of history, as it now stands, covers alike the
ward.
of social and of organic
life ; and to it the differ
phenomena
228The
Laws
of History.
[July,
ential element must be added, by virtue of which the one class

from the other.
is distinguished
of phenomena
In the ancient family, as delineated
the sep
by Mr. Maine,
arate existence of the individuals was almost submerged and lost
of the aggregate.
Personal
in the corporate existence
freedom
The doctrine
was entirely unrecognized.
that each person has
the exclusive
right to be the arbiter of his own destiny,
subject
from without,
found no place on
interference
to no meddling
To
the statute books of ancient
lawgivers.
family duties all
a
were
no less
individual
tie, religious
rights
subjected.
By
of the family were all held in alle
the members
than political,
The father might
to its oldest male
representative.
giance
son
and
in
when
his
sell him
grown up might
expose
infancy,
as a slave, or put him to death for disobedience.
And the wife
was to an equal extent
in the power of her husband,
to whom
so that marriage
she legally stood in the relation of a daughter,
of one form of servitude
was but the exchange
for another.
the persons conduct
No transfer of property was valid, unless
name of some ancestor, ?
dead ages ago, it
ing it swore in the
so
was
for
absolute
the
of the paterfa
be;
authority
might
that it could not be conceived of as departing
from him
milias
be exercised
the medium
at death, but must
by him, through
over whole
to come.
of prescriptive
ceremonial,
generations
was
in short,
but everything
by contract,
regulated
Nothing,
And
this is the fact which
was determined
irre
by status.*
the
social compact,
theory of a primitive
trievably demolishes
and Rousseau.
The prevalence
advocated
of this
by Hobbes
in
the
state of things, moreover,
despotic empires of the East,
that those nations are nothing but immense
is proof conclusive
or
of the first order; and thus the theory of
tribes,
aggregates
its doom.
the overripe character of Oriental civilization meets
such as states, civic or
the rise of higher aggregates,
With
in the corporate
exist
imperial, this sinking of the individual
The rights 3-nd -duties of
ence still for some time continued.
save in so far as they fol
the individual were still unrecognized,
lowed
from
* " Status
the status
in which
he happened,
est qualitas
cujus ratione homines
liber homo;
alio servus; alio civis;
jure utitur
tationes, Lib. I. tit. 3.
to be placed.
diverso jure utuntur.Alio

alio peregrinus."
Heineccii
In
Reci
1869.]
The Laws
of History.
229
the welfare
communities,
republican Rome, and in the Hellenic
of the
to
the
welfare
of the citizen was universally
postponed
to be here detailed,
too complicated
But circumstances
state.
as
of which the chief symptom was the increasing
importance
an
at
to contracts,
resulted,
signed by Roman
jurisprudence
or
more
less complete
advanced
period of the empire, in the
On the rise
of individual
rights and obligations.
recognition
feudal system, the relations of vassal to suzerain were,
regu
extensively
through the influence of Roman
conceptions,
lated by contract;
and it is in this respect that the feudal insti
"
from the unadulterated
tutions are most widely distinguished
* It
of primitive
races."
was, I believe, mainly
usages
owing
was accom
to this that the integration
of feudal sovereignties
of individual
liberty to a much
panied by the enlargement
ancient
and
extent
the
of
than
greater
gentes
integration
aided
in
The
Church
also
the
Roman
phratries.
promoting
as
as
in
the
consolida
freedom of individuals,
well
facilitating
tion of states.
of celibacy, it main
By the strict enforcement
a comparatively
tained in the midst
of hereditary
aristocracy
of the
where advancement
usually depended
organization,
or intellectual
And preserving,
excellence
ability.
its independence
of feudal
institution,
by the same admirable
to interpose
be
it was often enabled
successfully
patronage,
tween the tyranny of kings and the helplessness
of subjects.
the
in various ways
The development
of industry,
crossing
same
to
the
of
has
contributed
divisions
result;
antique
society,
democratic
upon moral
until, in modern
times, the primitive mode of organization
almost entirely effaced, leaving perhaps no other vestige
the legal disqualifications
Individual
of women.
rights
come
have
to be all in all.
from
obligations,
being nothing,
It will thus be seen that the very same process, which
in the formation of social aggregates
of a higher
resulted
is
than
and
has
and
higher order, has also resulted in the more and more complete
to the re
subordination
of the requirements
of the aggregate
of
it
further
the
individual.
And
be
that
quirements
noticed,
the sentiment
and
of universal
universal
philanthropy
justice,
which maintains
the stability of the highest
social aggregation,
maintains
also to the fullest extent
the independence
of its in
*'
Maine,
p. 365.
230The Laws
of History.
[July,
dividual
members
in early times
; while the selfishness, which
the
of
existence
than the
any higher
-organization
prevented
was
also
individual
freedom.
with
This is
family,
incompatible
the exact reverse of the state of things which we find in or
evolution.
ganic
more and more
In
individual
life is
organic
development,
in
In
life.
social
devel
submerged
corporate
and more
to indi
subordinated
opment,
corporate life is more
vidual life. The highest organic
life is that in which the units
The highest
social life is that
have the least possible freedom.
in which the units have the greatest possible freedom.
Thus we have at last reached
in quest of
the conclusion
the
in
which we set out.
formula,
Supplementing
previous
which organic and social life were seen to agree, by our present
formula, in which
they are seen to differ, we obtain the funda
mental
social
conform.
The result, it
law to which
changes
will be seen, is the reverse of that reached by Comte, whose
individual
state of society is one in which
ultimate
liberty no
more
animal.
exists than it does in the cells of a vertebrate
as the necessary
of
Nor does it interpret progress
consequence
an inherent
but it recognizes
it as determined
tendency,
by
complex conditions, which must all be fulfilled before it can be
realized.
And
showing that historic phe
lastly, by practically
can be reduced
nomena
to orderly sequence,
it confirms
the
I have sought
elsewhere
result which
Review,
{Fortnightly
to demonstrate
that social
1868)
independently,
September,
the sphere of
changes, are within
changes, as well as physical
immutable law, concerning which Hooker has said, with no less
"
her seat is the bosom of God, and
truth than sublimity, that
her voice
the harmony
of the world,"
John
Fiske.

A History of The Intellectual Development of Europe by John William Draper Ancient Law Its Connection With The Early History of Society, and Its Relation To Modern Ideas by Henry Sumner Maine

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University of Northern Iowa

of his country still adhere to the opinions he then gave

each other can only bring about

the laws to which social changes

that it may well have long been deemed

but that, con

the less obstinately

that progress has been on the whole

Far from supposing

the Stoics and the Roman

et longioris aevi diligentia.Veniet

"Svv brj eya) firjr avros iv avBp&noiari ftUaios

"E/ifJicvai el fiei^ea ye btKrjv dftiKwrepos e?jei

wherein manners were simpler, passions more

to Mr. Maine, " the tendency

Prov. Jurisp. 331-371;

i.; Stahl, Phil,

this as it may, Hebrew

204 The Laws

the true order

every twig and rootlet

laudable but bootless

redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia

and the part played

of Greece, Vol. VIII.,

208 The Laws

lies the difficulty of assigning

For the eminent rank which he assigns to Arabic civilization,

But in neither of these three typical cases can

Owing to the Protean

others have lingered

to sunlight, but with man

alone, the slight amount of

the nature of chronological

But though Dr. Draper's

into two layers,

and Federal courts, ? which are lineally descended

218 The Laws

of the Semitic languages from a single parent tongue furnishes

will adopt a course of action more or less in conformity with

to look upon Mr.

222 The Laws

than is the case in modern

life and organic life in general.

pp. 441, 442.

224 The Laws

head of the family, may be found in every part of the world.*

226 The Laws

was as yet too

From this happy

it required all the immense power of the Church, unflinchingly

we find the development

ential element must be added, by virtue of which the one class

diverso jure utuntur.Alio

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