direction, has become hereditary, the habit has grown into an instinct.

As we descend in the scale of animal life, we find that the ratio of the instinctive to the intelligent acts of the several individuals continually increases,—that is, the actions of animals of any lower order are more nearly exclusively instinctive than those of animals of any higher order; but it does not follow from this that there are absolutely more and higher manifestations of instinct in mollusks than in man; only that relatively to the whole of the actions of the mollusks the instinctive form a larger part than is the case in man. "Intelligence and instinct are not mutually exclusive, as some seem to suppose; the one is not simply a characteristic of man and the other of animals, but they coexist in varying relative proportions throughout the animal kingdom."* In the sum of human actions, therefore, we may expect to find a large number that are purely instinctive in character. Important among the acts of this class are those which bear on the political organization of society.

The long continuance of a people under any given. political order engenders a habit of political thought and action which ripens into a political instinct, and becomes powerful in determining the form of institutions and the direction of political progress. In the early stages of political life changes are less frequent than in the later stages; and opportunity is thereby offered for the ideas of social organization peculiar to primitive times to impress themselves upon the mind, and in the course of centuries of political monotony, to ripen into a firmly fixed instinct. Thus the political instincts of a race have their origin in a pre-historic age, in an age when generation after genera* Prof. Joseph Le Conte in Popular Science Monthly, October, 1875.

tion passes away, leaving no record of change in social forms, or of the acquisition of new ideas. And it is this political instinct that must be taken account of if we would fully understand later political progress; it is in its force and persistence that we discern the main cause of that tendency displayed in kindred nations to preserve in their governments the essential features of the primitive political institutions of the race to which they belong.

One of the most striking results of the influence of a political instinct common to the Western nations is to be found in the analogies which may be observed between the political institutions of the different states, taken in connection with the fact that their common features are at the same time the characteristic features of the primitive Aryan government. In speaking of the early institutions of the Aryans, Freeman says: "The first glimpse which we can get of the forms of government in the early days of kindred nations shows them to have been wonderfully like one another. Alike among the old Greeks, the old Italians, and the old Germans, there was a king or chief with limited power, there was a smaller council of nobles or of old men, and a general assembly of the whole people. Such was the old constitution of England, out of which its present constitution has grown step by step. But there is no reason to think that this was at all peculiar to England, or even peculiar to those nations who are most nearly akin to the English. There is every reason to believe that this form of government, in which every man had a place, though some had a greater place than others, was really one of the possessions which we have in common with the whole Aryan family." This appears, then, as the type of the Aryan government. The existence of a strong political instinct would lead us to * "General Sketch of History," p. 6.

"*

expect to find this type perpetuated in the later history of the race, and, in fact, we find that its essential features have been maintained in many governments. Wherever variations from the type have occurred, they have been either the result of a more complete development, and carrying out of the hereditary scheme, or due to influences, like, for example, that of the church, foreign to the hereditary traditions of the nation in question. One of the prominent characteristic features of this typical or primitive government is the co-existence of three elements: 1, the national chief with limited authority; 2, the council, comprising men of distinguished birth, or of extraordinary experience and wisdom; 3, the assembly of the people, in which the several individuals comprising the people act either immediately or through their repre

sentatives.

With a very few exceptions, every sovereign and subordinate state of the Aryan race is marked by the prominent characteristics of the primitive Aryan government. This fact, taken by itself, does not appear of great significance. When, however, it is remembered that this peculiar organization of the central government is almost exclusively confined to Aryan states, and to states in which the Aryan influence predominates, and that among these states it is virtually universal, there appears to be something more than a mere coincidence. This view is further confirmed by the essential similarity between the modern governments of the Aryan race and that which has been pointed out as the primitive and typical government; and this indicates, in the race, an inborn force leading it to resist foreign influences, and seek the realization of its primitive ideals.

The fact of a striking similarity between the governments at present existing and the old Aryan government

is by no means the strongest indication of an instinctive force operating to determine political forms; for we have only to assume a standpoint a few centuries back in order to discover that then, apparently, no such similarity existed. Of vastly more importance is the persistence of a tendency, everywhere manifest in the political development of Western nations, to overcome the result of foreign influences, and reëstablish original forms. The commonwealth's men set aside the king and lords, and proposed to establish a new order of things. In thus reorganizing the government they ran counter to the political instinct of the nation, and the ultimate failure of their scheme was, therefore, a foregone conclusion. The king, lords, and commons stood for the primitive king, council, and assembly. Any other form of government failed to meet the instinctive demands of the nation, and insure political stability. Cromwell at last appreciated that there was no hope for the commonwealth except in a return to the ancient threefold division of power, which was effected through the institution of the "other house," and the office of Lord Protector. The republicans, in their attempts to carry out their original plans, had, therefore, to contend not merely with an opposing party called the royalists, but they also carried on a hopeless struggle against a political tendency deriving its force from a strong national instinct.

The antagonism between the national or race instinct and the existing organization in any given case is brought about either through the conscious efforts of powerful political leaders to carry out their own ideas regardless of the early history of the nation, or through the growth of a great institution or of great institutions standing on a basis independent of the national life, but determining certain features of the national organization. The first

case is illustrated by the English commonwealth in its early years, and by the first attempts of the French to found a republic; the second by the growth of the church. What specially distinguishes the form of the national government in the middle ages from that of earliest and latest times is the existence of the estate of the clergy by the side of the third estate, and of the estate of the nobles. Eliminate the estate of the clergy from the medieval governments, and they assume essentially the same form as the primitive Aryan government; and to accomplish this has been one of the aims of political progress since the beginning of the political power of the church. The retention of political power by the clergy as a separate branch of the legislature was a standing protest against an instinctive tendency that has finally culminated in our day in the overthrow of the church as a separate and distinct factor in legislation.

The force of instinct in political development is furthermore illustrated by the parallel constitutional growth of kindred nations, which in their progress have been largely independent of one another and independent of common foreign influences. The English and the Swedes are such nations. In England the essential features of the primitive Aryan constitution not only mark the existing government, but also characterize that form of government which the English people have struggled to maintain throughout their history. The king, the witenagemote, and the folkmote shared the supreme power probably in all the earliest kingdoms.* But as the primitive kingdoms coalesced, the folkmote was either neglected or continued as a local institution, while the witenagemote remained the supreme council of the new government of enlarged dominion. Thus in those states, *Stubbs' 66 Constitutional History of England," I., 119.