mechanical and industrial arts have been developed, and have become a powerful factor in shaping national and international Thought. Disputed boundaries have been settled by treaties. The rights of Nations, to some extent at least, have been settled by agreements of peace, instead of being left to the fortunes of war. And although the governments of the world, especially those of Europe, still maintain large armies and navies, the industrial and peace-loving spirit is in the ascendancy. And it is impossible to estimate how much this means in the progress of the world. The losses of war cannot be counted. The destruction is not alone in property, but in the loss of young and vigorous men. Who can estimate with accuracy how much of productive power, how much of genius, of inspiration and scholarship have been ruthlessly cut off by war! All the gentler feelings of Industry, the Pursuits of Peace, the Ties of Home, the growing sentiment of the Brotherhood of Man are rising up against armed strife. War is now a sad and last resort. Other forms of greatness than the military; other, higher and finer forms of courage are now demanded. The world is beginning to realize that the heroes of peace are needed. Nor are they less highly honored than were the heroes of

war.

CHAPTER XI.

PRIMITIVE LEGAL CONCEPTIONS.

Primitive legal conceptions are valuable. They contain, potentially at least, all the forms in which law has subsequently been developed. They are to the student of jurisprudence what the primitive crusts of the earth are to the geologist. Nevertheless, the study of jurisprudence has been conducted much as inquiry in physics or physiology was prosecuted before observation had taken the place of assumption. Theoriesplausible and more or less comprehensive, but utterly without foundation, such as "The Law of Nature" or the "Social Compact"-have universally enjoyed preference over careful, patient, and systematic research into the primitive conditions of society and legal institutions. And they have served to obscure the Truth by diverting attention from the only quarter in which Truth can be found.

The development of those principles of Liberty, Equality, and Justice which are enshrined in the Constitution of the United States covers a period of many centuries of authentic History. They were old when the organic law of our Government was adopted. Old, when the English Bill of Rights was established. Old, when the Petition of Right was presented to the First Charles for his approval. OLD, when Magna Charta was wrested from King John on the 15th of June,

1215. OLD, when Alfred the Great compiled his Code, and thus restored and re-established the Common Law. OLD, when the rules of the Common Law were formulated in the forests of Germany, more than two thousand years ago. OLD, when the Mosaic Law was promulgated. OLD, as our race and civilization.

Primitive man could account for sustained or periodically recurring action only by presupposing a personal agency. The Sun rising or declining, (or seeming to them to do so) was a person, and necessarily a divine person. The Earth, yielding her increase, was a person and divine. The wind and the whirlwind were regarded as the Voice of God. Nor were such notions confined to the material universe, its physical elements or manifestations. They obtained throughout the realm of primitive Thought: The head of a tribe or kingdom, exercising judicial functions, was supposed to possess superior or supernatural knowledge; his judgments or decrees were regarded as the direct result of Inspiration. When conducting the tribal religious rites or ceremonies, it was likewise supposed that he was clothed with divine wisdom and authority. Rules of law were closely interwoven with theological precepts from the very earliest times, ascending to the most remote antiquity to which the light of history or the faint glimmerings of tradition reach. Consequently, all offenses, whether lawless acts or infractions of theological precept, were regarded primarily as Sins; whether the offense were the taking of human life, theft of

property, removing a landmark, reviling a parent, sacrilege, adultery, or of whatever class, the act was regarded as having been committed, not against the Individual, not even against the peace of dignity of the aggregate community, but against the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. Thus, the law administered at Athens by the Senate of Areopagus was an ecclesiastical Code; whilst at Rome, from a very early period, the pontifical jurisprudence punished adultery, sacrilege, and perhaps murder. This Thought finds expression in a Psalm attributed to David, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight!" At a later period, transgressions which are known to modern jurisprudence as "Torts" were elaborated in detail. But it was not until recent times that the idea of offense against the aggregate community resulted in what we now understand as Criminal Law. Indeed, the only authoritative statement of Right and Wrong to be found in primitive jurisprudence is a judicial decree; not a judgment based upon the existence or even supposing the existence of a law, nor even assuming that a law had been violated, but a decree which was supposed to have been breathed into the judicial mind by a higher power at the moment of pronouncing the judgment or decree. In other words, the patriarchal chieftain or king announced the law, defined the offense, adjudged the accused guilty of having committed it, and imposed the penalty, all at the time of pronouncing his judgment or decree.

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Passing from this formative period of Society and its primitive notions of jurisprudence, we approach an era of customary law, where it is found that customs, rules, principles or observances form a substantive body of law. And it may be observed that government here exists under the form of aristocracies which were composed of a number of families, frequently united under an actual, sometimes merely an assumed blood relationship. Over such an aristocracy, there was frequently a king having a merely nominal authority; an hereditary general, as in Lacedaemon; a mere functionary, like the Chief Archon at Athens; or a formal hierophant, such as the Rex Sacrificulus at Rome.

The important point is that whilst the military, the political or civil, and the priestly or sacerdotal orders were more or less clearly defined, at the commencement of the aristocratic period, the priestly caste eventually became dominant, and everywhere the military and political elements became either subservient or were entirely eliminated as authoritative heads of government. The ultimate result at which such aristocracies arrived was a king, exercising despotic power, limited only by the special privileges and prerogatives of the priestly caste.

It is important to observe that society in these early communities was everywhere divided into two classes, namely, the Initiated and the Profane. All ancient peoples practiced the Myste